EnVyUs fell as the last hope to KD Uncia today.
The chances at a repeat foreign championship at OGN APEX were already looking grim coming into the round of eight. Three of the four invited teams—Misfits, Cloud9 and Fnatic—faced elimination in the first round of the tournament, as the host nation took over the league by storm.
Reigning champions EnVyUs were the only team which escaped the round of sixteen, though not without battle scars. NV played their last round of sixteen match against challenger Meta Athena to a 0-3 loss, a blazing example of just how far the Korean scene had come since the first season.
The round of began equally bad for the Season 1 winners as Korea’s top ranked teams Lunatic-Hai dealt them another sweeping loss in the opening match of the round. Down to the losers bracket, EnVy had to fight KongDoo Uncia in a Season 1 semi-finals rematch and beat them just to keep themselves alive in the tournament.
Full five games into the match, nV’s spark was put out and with it the last hope for a non-Korean APEX champion. The Europeans took home their traditionally strong Hollywood and Dorado but lost both Ilios and Temple of Anubis—maps loved a lot by the Korean teams—as well as the critical bout on the evergreen King’s Row as they were unable to finish the rout and were stopped just before the foundry checkpoint.
Although no foreigner will contest the trophy, a handful of major storylines are still to be found. The challengers from RunAway escaped with a clutch first place in their top eight group today and are a lock for the semi-finals. Another challenger team in Meta Athena has been unstoppable in the tournament so far and it’s more than likely that OGN APEX crowns its first royal roader at the end of the season.
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