Sweetdreams, ImperialHal and ReedzFPS broke the highest game total in any LAN event as they won Apex Twitch Rivals.
The Apex Legends Twitch Rivals event saw two of North America's top IGL's combine, as Sweetdreams and ImperialHal took first place.
They stormed past several teams, dropping a breathtaking 36 point game - one of the best Apex LAN games in history. The event, taking part from TwitchCon in San Diego featured 20 teams. These were a mix of pro players and content creators.
The LAN event combined the Shadow Royale LTM mode, and regular BR gameplay. Teams competed for a share of a healthy $200k prize pool.
Apex Twitch Rivals brings Shadow Royale to LAN
In line with the usual fun spirit of Twitch events, the Apex Twitch Rivals featured the new Shadow Royale LTM. In this mode, dead players can respawn as shadows, and wall run, meele and revive to their hearts content. Shadows respawn repeatedly until all 'living' teammates are fully dead.
This means that you can rack up some pretty hefty kill totals by killing shadows - who only have 50 HP. To combat this, the two Shadow Royale games were placement points only. This resulted in some of the tensest endgames across any tournament ever. It was also the first time any version of Olympus was played on LAN.
The placement orientated scoring system saw a swathe of defensive legends and compositions, as teams played exclusively for the win. This was totally at odds with the recent Apex Legends meta, that is as aggressive as ever. Of course, Valkyrie was still a hugely popular pick - it seems teams reliance on the skyward dive ultimate isn't just limited to standard BR games.
When IGL's collide: Sweet and Hal mastermind inch perfect win
From it's announcement, Sweetdreams, ImperialHal and ReedzFPS were clearly a strong favourite to take the title. Both Hal and Sweet are considered among the best best IGL's worldwide. Since Hal's swap to controller, he has also been able to perform a co-igl fragger role - leaving Sweet to do what Sweet does best, lead.
However, after the first 3 games - things were looking pretty dire. A bit of overthinking and confusion cost them their Shadow Royale games, and then a minor mid-fight mistake saw them take just 4 points from the opening BR game. The Apex Twitch Rivals title seemed to be slipping away.
Nonetheless, the trio knew that the 19 point gap to Hambino's team in first was assailable. Yet, even the most diehard NRG or TSM fan wouldn't have dared to predict the game that followed.
Record breaking LAN score at Apex Twitch Rivals
Sweet, Hal and Reedz smashed records, far surpassing the highest ever individual game score at any major Apex LAN in history. Their 36 point game might be one of the highest individual tournament games in history, outside of lower level events.
The 24 kill total accounts for almost half of the 57 available theoretical kills - and the execution was near perfect. While the team knew that they needed a pretty impressive score to take the title, they still approached the game methodically, not forcing fights unnecessarily. Even a clean Kraber headshot from Yuki onto Sweet didn't deter the squad from their gameplan.
In a near perfect endgame, Sweet masterminded a great play to kill the team below them. Then they sweeped the zone, killing almost everyone in the final circle.
Sweet in particular really showed up at this Apex Twitch Rivals event. Despite not having the usual 240hz high performance experience he is used too, the NRG star was able to drop double digit kills at the same time as leading the team.
ImperialHal: "[Sweet] is the only person I'll ever give IGL to"
It was very notable that ImperialHal, a very confident IGL was happy to hand the reigns over to Sweet for this crucial Apex Twitch Rivals event. When pressed on the decision in the post game interview, he admitted that Sweet was the only person he'd ever give the IGL role to.
This is a huge sign of respect between the two rivals, who have shared a very lively and friendly banter over the years. Clearly, Hal made a great decision here. He added that it made a nice change to just sit back and shoot his gun. Not having the pressure of making all the decisions seemed to bring out the best in Hal's controller ability - he performed very strongly and there was no real clashes between the two during the event.
Could we ever see Hal and Sweet team up outside of Apex Twitch Rivals events? Find full standings for the event on Liquipedia. Plus, stay tuned to esports.gg for the latest Apex Legends news and updates.