DarkZero win APAC Long Shot Invitational despite playing from NA

DarkZero has kicked off 2024 on a high by winning Long Shot's $2,000 Apex Legends Invitational. The three-time ALGS LAN champions proved their mettle by going up against a strong contingent of APAC South teams and coming out on top. The most interesting aspect of this is that they won the tournament by a comfortable margin despite playing remotely from NA on high ping.

The team moved to the US to gain a competitive advantage after its championship win at ALGS Year 2. Long Shot's invitational took place in APAC South, DarkZero's former home on the other side of the world.

They were playing on 200+ ping according to a social media post by the tournament organiser. DarkZero started slow, caught out by the fast-paced gameplay of the region. Eventually, they found their stride and still managed to find a way to dominate the lobby to deliver strong performances. In game 7, they dropped a 17-kill game on the lobby, winning it by quite a margin and all but confirming their victory at the tournament.

Long Shot invited 20 teams from the APAC South region to participate in the invitational for a $2,000 prize pool. It was a short contest, with 8 matches following the ALGS rule set and 100% beacon spawn.

The four maps selected for the tournament were Storm Point, Olympus, World's Edge and King's Canyon, with two games played on each map. In addition to DarkZero, Iron Blood Gaming, DreamFire, and MDY White were also among the popular teams participating in the invitational.

Long Shot, founded by Genome and Roots is the official broadcast partner for Apex Legends in the APAC South Region. They're known for their efforts to boost the APAC South region and to amplify their presence on the global stage.

This invitational is a part of these efforts, giving APAC South teams a chance to demonstrate their talent and gain some competitive experience against some heavy hitters. Speaking to esports.gg in 2023, Genome spoke about how the APAC South region can grow stronger together and bolster its presence in the global Apex Legends scene.

The APAC-South contingent at Long Shot's invitational put on quite the show. Their aggressive playstyle was entertaining to watch and teams like Iron Blood Gaming, Divine, Kakkoii, and Boogie Boarders put up strong showings. It'll be interesting to see how they perform at LAN this year. All eyes were on DreamFire in the absence of Moist Esports, and given their performance at LANs, everyone expected them to pop off. However, they didn't quite show up and ended up underperforming at the tournament.

It was interesting to see that despite the nerfs, SMGs were quite common at the contest. However, the pecking order among SMGs has shifted in favor of the CAR SMG and Volt. With the latest damage nerf, the CAR's combination of rate of fire and damage, and the Volt's consistency proved popular with the players. Meanwhile, shotguns made a comeback into the meta with the Mastiff seeing some popularity after its latest buff. The Peacekeeper, as always was popular. The 30-30 repeater is a strong pick once again, thanks to its high damage output.

Among the legends, Horizon, Catalyst and Valkyrie were all popular picks and interestingly, Conduit also saw popularity. It's been a while since a support legend saw some competitive popularity but Conduit may just break that trend.

DarkZero received $1,000 from the prize pool while Iron Blood Gaming received $600 and Divine received $400 for finishing in 2nd and 3rd place respectively. The Invitational was an exciting little tournament and demonstrated the strength of the APAC South contingent. It'll be interesting to see how the APAC teams that make it to ALGS will perform at LAN. Their aggressive, full-send playstyle stands out as a staple of the region.

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