Alliance Unlucky on being more confident, winning the EWC and more

Alliance have had a fantastic ALGS Year so far. They finished third then first in the EMEA Pro League, and came third at the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs. They were one fight away from winning that event. Victory there would have meant back to back LAN wins, with Alliance also winning the Esports World Cup. Unlucky, their latest addition, has also excelled this year. He finished in Mannheim with the second most kills across the event, and racked up the most in the finals.

Unlucky has gone from strength to strength since joining Alliance during Split 1. He has elevated his game and is now considered amongst the best controller players in the world.

esports.gg spoke with Andre "unlucky" Türk ahead of Alliance's bid for an ALGS Championship title in Sapporo, Japan. You can watch the full interview with esports.gg below.

The ALGS Championship will conclude just before Unlucky's one year anniversary with Alliance. The now 20-year-old tweeted that joining Alliance has "changed my life so much", but did Unlucky envision the year going as well as it has so far?

"I always expected to have a good year to be honest, because joining Hakis and Effect was, as I said, truly a good thing for me to happen this year. But of course, I didn't expect to win the EWC and then afterwards also get third place."

Unlucky has stood out with his individual performances, racking up kills in every major tournament the team has played in. Unlucky feels that is thanks to how he fit neatly into Alliance in the support role.

"I play a very supportive role in the team and I bring vibes, you know. I think that was lacking in the team before, I think I've made the vibes better here, supporting Effect in frontline refragging.

"Now, it's a bit changed meta wise going into Champs. It's a bit different. There's not much fragging or support role going on. It's kind of like meatballing. Like, you just have to be together. So roles are kind of thrown away a little bit right now. But that's what I originally joined for, just to be support for Effect."

Then, in terms of how his own gameplay has improved, Unlucky feels that his time on Alliance has hugely improved his confidence.

"I was lacking a lot of confidence before and that weakened me a lot especially in the previous LANs with Vexed, and weakened me a lot individually. But, behind the scenes with the team, Hakis and Effect are both really good individual players and confident players. That has helped me a lot to be confident myself."

It makes sense why Unlucky lacked confidence in a LAN environment. His first two LAN experiences, with Vexed, were less than idea. Vexed finished 31st, and then rock bottom 40th in the ALGS Year 3 Playoff events. They then failed to qualify for the ALGS Championship as a result.

For a young player to only have negative LAN experiences, and never having even seen the winners bracket, it makes sense to be low in confidence in that environment. However, after such a successful year, that is a thing of the past for Unlucky.

There is no better way to gain confidence in any esport, or physical sport for that matter, than winning. As the saying goes, winning breeds confidence. Alliance lifting the title at the Esports World Cup in Riyadh was a turning point in the young Austrians career. How did he feel when they lifted the trophy?

"Honestly, I don't remember like the actual thoughts of the moment! I was just honestly truly happy. I was just happy everything worked out, I was always working hard towards my goal, I always wanted to win the LAN. Even after the 40th place, it was not out of sight.

"I always wanted to grind, get even better. I would even say the 40th was a necessary thing to happen. Like a cannon event I would say! Maybe even to tell myself more of what I really Want to achieve. So yeah, it was just incredible to be honest, the experience. It was just full of happiness. It was just incredible!"

After that win, Alliance and Unlucky joined a very small club of LAN winners in Apex Legends. With the early years of competition, in part due to COVID disruption, dominated by just TSM and DarkZero. It took until the Split 1 Playoffs in Los Angeles for a team without either ImperialHal or Zer0 to lift a LAN trophy in Apex Legends.

So how did it feel arriving in Mannheim as one of a handful of LAN champions in the game and did that change how the tournament felt for Unlucky? For him, the difference was not having teammate Effect alongside him, rather than pressure after an EWC win.

"I would say it definitely has changed for me a lot, because going to Mannheim without Effect was not an easy thing for me either. I tried to fill a lot of the fragger role, but I wasn't really confident in myself because I'm not really the playmaker myself. So I had struggled with that but gladly I had Tyler there as well to help me with the fragging part.

"I think the LAN win before gave me a lot of confidence that I can do this even without Effect. I tried to show the world we can still do that. It worked out, we almost won again. It's just unfortunate with the Hakis incident on the zip-line, but it's okay now, I'll forgive him. He always carries me to the perfect spot, so it's okay!"

Stay tuned to esports.gg for full coverage of the ALGS Championship in Sapporo, Japan and all things Apex Legends.