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Another Shade of Orange: Former Fnatic trio to compete in Valorant Challengers League under Apeks banner
Once Fnatic, Always Orange
Former Fnatic Valorant players James “Mistic” Orfila, Enzo “Enzo” Mestari, and Martin “Magnum” Peňkov have reunited on Norwegian organization Apeks. This is according to a report by Blix.gg’s Alejandro Gomis, who reports on both Valorant and League of Legends. His report includes that the three former Fnatic members have reached a verbal agreement with Apeks Valorant, to compete under their banner for the upcoming 2023 Valorant Challengers League, in the Polaris League.
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The goal, the same as for every other Challengers League team, is to achieve promotion to the International Leagues via Ascension tournament. All around the world, talented Valorant pro players who failed to acquire a spot amongst the 30 international teams will compete in the Challengers League in 2023. With the consolidation of top talents to the International Leagues, this leaves many former players, who played for top organizations in the past, such as the aforementioned trio, without a home in the top leagues.
What is the Challengers League?
According to Riot, the Challengers League system is designed to encompass more than 20 leagues around the world, ‘ensuring every Valorant player has a path to realize their competitive dreams.’
These leagues will ‘provide highly organized competitions,’ beginning with an open qualifier, following by a selection of the best teams based on performance in two splits of multi-week regular season play.
Separate to that, 2023 will also include a new event series in each of the three main region: EMEA, AMERICAS, and PACIFIC, labelled Ascension tournaments. Winning such an event earns the organization a spot in the following year’s international league for two years.
Apeks Predator?
The Norwegian organization was originally founded by former Norwegian profession Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Counter-Strike: Source player Anders “aNdz” Kjær. Beginning in 2017, they now boast teams in Counter Strike, Fortnite, and now Valorant. The new roster is looking to compete in the Polaris League in EMEA Valorant.
The Polaris League is one of 21 Challenger League around the world that have been outfitted for Valorant’s new tier 2 ecosystem. The signing of the trio is a monumental feat that will likely serve the roster well. “Mistic” and “Magnum” played together for over a year, with the latter joining in April of 2021 and his departure in June of 2022. The two placed 2nd at Masters Reykjavik in 2021 and 3rd in both 2021’s Europe Challengers 2 and 2022’s EMEA Stage 1 Challengers.
Moreover, “Enzo” has also played with “Magnum” briefly as a substitute in 2022 and with “Mistic” for roughly six months. With “Enzo”, Fnatic placed 1st in the EMEA Stage 2 Challengers, 4th at Masters Copenhagen and 5th-6th at Champions 2022. During the off-season, both “Mistic” and “Enzo” have been reported as released from Fnatic as free agents and free to explore their options.
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Rising Powerhouse Organization
The Apeks organization is a rising powerhouse in the esports scene, boasting proper talent on their Counter-Strike roster. Players such as Martin “STYKO” Styk, Tim “nawwk” Jonasson, Joakim “jkaem” Myrbostad and Richard “shox” Papillon are all well-known talents in the community and now line the Apeks roster. With the addition of former Fnatic players, it is a veritable collection of solid tier 1-1.5 talent within their halls. That said, the final two members of the Valorant roster have yet to be revealed. However, Apeks has demonstrated the resources and desire to create a championship contending roster.
Image credit: Colin Young-Wolff/Riot Games