APEX Season 3 will soon be upon us; but what happened in the Super Week that decided the final S3 teams? There were major winners, and some unfortunate losers.
The APEX Super Week is a week-long series that always happens before a new season, containing eight Korean teams all fighting for a place in that main event. Half the teams involved are there trying to promote from the Challengers league, while the other half are pro APEX teams that face demotion to that Challengers league.
For this season's Super Week, the best six out of eight teams involved got to promote to/stay in the pro league, considering only two Western teams were invites instead of four. This Super Week process acts as a great opportunity for teams to rise, through hard work, to one of the biggest events around, while keeping the pool of teams fresh and at the highest quality possible.
WINNERS
CONBOX Spirit has made improvements in their performances since playing in APEX Season 2. They were knocked out of the group stage in APEX Season 2, only winning one match against Afreeca Freecs Blue 3-2. They made some roster changes with ‘Liz’ and ‘MyungHoon’ now focusing on streaming, to replace them, they brought in ‘Asher’ and ‘Architect’. These changes clearly worked well with them sweeping through the week winning their matches against MVP Space and Rhinos Gaming Wings, 3-0 and 3-1 respectively. Definitely a team to look out for moving forward in Season 3.
Flash Lux were only able to take a single map in the entirety of Season 2 (against Fnatic). Unlike other teams they did not change their roster, hoping that they had what they needed to still do well in the Super Week. They started off weak, losing against Mighty AOD twice and only winning a close match against Afreeca Freecs Red 3-2. This still placed them into the losers group putting them against MVP Infinity where they continued their rollercoaster of performances winning 3-1, in the rematch against Afreeca Freecs Red they matched their previous performance winning again 3-2. This means Flash Lux is back to play in Season 3, but the question is whether they will do better this time.
With Mighty AOD’s last appearance in last Season’s Super Week not going well losing both of their matches, the team worked hard both on their play and roster. With four new members on their roster this Super Week (‘Sleep’, ‘Diem’, ‘Fate’ and ‘lifq’), they aimed to improve, and improve they did. Being able to beat the aforementioned Flush Lux 3-1 in the upper bracket and beating them again 3-0 after losing a close game with X6-Gaming 2-3, they qualified for Season 3. In Season 3 they are facing more testing teams, only time will tell how they will do.
MVP Space struggled last Super Week losing against Afreeca Freecs Red as well as LW Red. To combat this, they have brought in ‘Larus’ (an old friend who played for them late last year) as well as ‘Closer’ and ‘Yaki’. In their first game against CONBOX Spirit things were looking the same losing 0-3. However, they came back strong beating their sister team (MVP Infinity) and then winning a close match against RHINOS GAMING WINGS 3-2. Moving into Season 3 can they beat MVP Infinity’s performance from last Season?
Rhinos Gaming Wings has never competed in a Super Week before, with their only APEX showing being in the Challenger Seasons. Last time out they were able to finish second just behind X6-Gaming. They have made changes to their roster since their last APEX appearance introducing ‘oxo’, ‘Agape’ and ‘Umtae’. RGW had a promising start to the Super Week, beating MVP Infinity 3-0, however, things turned for the worst, losing their next 3 matches, putting them in a rematch against MVP Infinity in the lower bracket of the losers group. After beating them in the same style as the first time, they headed in a deciding match against Afreeca Freecs Red, where they narrowly won 3-2. Season 3 group stage will be a challenge for them, as they will face Season 1 champions EnVyUs.
X6-Gamiming are a very promising team after only being formed in February 2017. Rhey have already topped APEX Challenger Season 3, and sought the chance to play with the big guys. They did manage to make that happen, easing through the Super Week, beating Afreeca Freecs Red 3-1 and Mighty AOD 3-2. This is a team to look out for in upcoming Season, facing finalists RunAway in the group stage.
LOSERS
Afreeca Freecs Red struggled last time out losing all of their games without taking a single map in the group stage of APEX Season 2. Going into the Super Week, they made multiple changes to their lineup moving ‘TakeThis’ to a sub position as well as having ‘LMan’ leave the organisation. This created two spaces that were filled by ‘Rio’ and ‘Creed’. However, the changes were not enough, losing against X6-Gaming 1-3 and falling to Flash Lux 2-3, resulting in them moving down to the Losers Group. In the losers group they had multiple close games, winning against Rhinos Gaming Wings 3-2, however, it wasn’t to be, losing against Flash Lux, and the rematch against Rhinos Gaming Wings 2-3.
This means that they will not have the chance to improve on their performance from Season 2.
Last Season, MVP Infinity looked like a promising team who were able to take both EnVyUs and Meta Athena to a map 5. Still, they ended up at the bottom of their group, making them play in the Super Week. Coming into the Super Week they were looking to improve on that performance after introducing ‘Bianca’ to the roster to replace ‘sylph’. However, it was not to be, losing 0-3 against Rhinos Gaming Wings and their own sister team (MVP Space) moving them into the Losers Group where again they lost to Flash Lux 1-3. It did not get any better losing again to Rhinos Gaming Wings 0-3. They can only hope they can improve for next season, whenever that may come.
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