Apeks Apeks Europe Rank #3 hype Tautvydas Paldavicius MOLSI Michał Łącki AvovA Auni Chahade has joined VCT EMEA with their win in the Ascension EMEA tournament. Their 3-2 victory over PCIFIC Espor PCIFIC Espor Inactive ComeBack Berkcan Şentürk Rosé Eren Erzan Loita Utku Kart Lar0k Yusuf Kaan Kanber saw them crowned the champions of the regional circuit. This was Apeks' second time in an Ascension grand final, but unlike in 2023, they walked away with a trophy along with the Ascension spot.

A long time coming for Apeks. The road to Ascension saw the nine EMEA Challenger leagues each crown a champion after the second split. These were:

The second place teams of each region qualified for the play-ins tournament, where the winner would make it as the tenth team to play in Ascension. CGN Esports CGN Esports Inactive Kixer Leon Kixmüller Rand reyvn Robin-Lee Maier Varlas Luca Di Benedetto Wanted Giuliano Sotgiu Mimori Mihael Lazarin from DACH would only drop one map on their way to qualify, rounding out the ten Ascension teams.

Ascension group results

Heading into the tournament, there were a few community favorites, with Apeks and DSYRE both winning out both splits' trophies. SAW and The Ultimates were also similar in terms of regional domination but in contrast, PCIFIC had one of the most interesting paths to Ascension, being one of the first teams to make it from Premier to the VCL circuit mid-year. MOUZ and CGN were the two teams to make it last year as well.

The group stage saw Apeks dominate their group, only losing to GoNext in their opening game to finish with a 3-1 record as the first seed. CGN also had a 3-1 record, being the other team to qualify from group A.

In group B, PCIFIC continued their win streak, not losing a single series and being the only team to qualify for playoffs with a 4-0 record. The second slot saw more chaos, as there was a dispute over a referee ruling during Joblife vs Mouz, where Joblife were not allowed to bring in a substitute despite the rules allowing it, which was ultimately a factor in their loss. The official ruling that came out amidst calls for a retake backed up the original call, leading to The Ultimates taking the final playoffs spot.

Apeks dominate in playoffs

The opening playoffs game saw Apeks convincingly defeat The Ultimates, while PCFIC faced their first tournament loss to CGN, dropping them to the lower bracket. Apeks would find another clean 2-0 win over CGN in the upper bracket finals to be the first grand finalist, echoing their 2023 journey.

In the lower bracket, PCIFIC recovered and defeated The Ultimates to make it to the lower bracket final against CGN. The lower final and grand final took place in Berlin, and PCIFC found their first victory on LAN, taking down CGN with a dominant 3-0 victory to be the second team to make it to the finals.

The grand final saw Apeks use their upper bracket advantage to good use, banning out Bind, one of their weaker maps, and Icebox. The first map, Sunset, despite being Apeks' pick, was a dominant map for PCIFIC who took it with a 13-6 scoreline. Apeks responded with a 13-8 win on Abyss with a strong attack side performance. Both teams won their opponent's map pick, with the Ascension spot hinging on map five's winner, Ascent.

Apeks dominated the map, with AvovA winning a 1v1 to confirm Apeks' date with destiny, albeit a year later.

Apeks pull it off the second time around.

kaajak , having played four different duelist roles, and Avova both had 77 kills apiece by the end of the series. They are the 12th team that will be a part of VCT EMEA 2025, and will hold the spot for a year at the minimum.