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The location: a sold out Daiwa Premist Dome, Sapporo, Japan.
The event: The ALGS Championship, the biggest Apex Legends ALGS tournament to date.
The winner: GoNext.
Coming from England, theALGS Championshipin Sapporo is a very different beast to esports tournaments Im used to.
The crowd is polite, offering gentle applause when a team gets a kill.
There are few chants, and none of them lewd.
But this is a community that clearly, passionately lovesApex Legends it just does so in its own way.
There was a new energy come Championship Sunday.
Not a raucous one, but a sense of anticipation.
After four days of intense action, everything rests on today.
And after nine matches, it did: GoNext was crowned Champion.
“I always believed.”
Photo courtesy of EA and Joe Brady.
It still feels unreal, Hiarka tells me just minutes after lifting the ALGS Championship trophy.
Its like Im in a simulation.
His phone is blowing up with messages to the point where Twitter is crashing.
Photo courtesy of EA and Joe Brady.
He cant stop staring at the medal hung around his neck.
It means everything, he continues.
This is what every player wants at least once in their life.
Photo courtesy of EA and Joe Brady.
And for me, it means even more because firstly its in Japan, and secondly its a Championship.
Nobody would have predicted this result.
GoNext are good, old-fashioned underdogs.
I wasnt expecting[to win], Hiarka tells me, But I always believed.
I dont fear anyone in the game.
But it wasnt smooth sailing.
I was feeling very tilted, the Portuguese player explains.
Because we were losing on ourselves, we werent unlucky or anything.
That win took GoNext onto Match Point.
Where does GoNext go next?
As a team [were not going to] change.
Were not perfect, we need to fix some stuff, but we wont change.
It just changes how people look at us, and how much they respect us now.
He was struck by how polite the people are and the passion of the fans in Sapporo.
If you believe in yourself, its enough.
It doesnt matter what others think.
Apex Legends introduces Legend bans, a new map, and its biggest LAN yet in ALGS Year 5.
