RIYADH: The “Super Sunday” of the Esports World Cup in Riyadh saw three champions crowned, with KPL Dream Team taking the “Honor of Kings Invitational Series 2024 Midseason”, Alliance the “Apex Legends” contest and Team BDS the “Rainbow Six Siege” competition.
The world's largest gaming and sports festival, which has a record prize pool of $60 million, had $7 million presented to competitors at Boulevard Riyadh City.
The KPL Dream Team claimed $1 million with a stunning “Honor of Kings” performance – going through the entire tournament without losing a single round. The Chinese stars swept LGD Gaming MY 3-0 in the finals.
The twins, whose real name is Jia Yi, coach of the KPL Dream Team, said: “It's because of teamwork. We have good techniques and worked hard for this event. It's been a long time since we played this game. This is how we can take this event. I would like to thank our fans. They came from China to support us here. The facilities here are excellent. It was great to play here.”
The story of the day, however, was 'Rainbow Six Siege', where the BDS team followed up their 2022 and 2023 successes at Gamers8, organized by the Saudi Esports Federation. Not only did they make gaming history, but they did so by sweeping w7m esports 3-0 in the finals.
BDS team analyst eaglemees, real name Mees van der Arend, said: “We are all very happy to be back-to-back champions at Gamers8 and the Esports World Cup. I don't think there are any teams that could have done that and created history. We are happy. Emotions are at their maximum. Now we're taking some time to relax and then focus on our next tour.”
The Swiss/French organization earned $750,000 for their tournament winning exploits. In the 'Apex Legends' tournament at the SEF Arena in Boulevard Riyadh City, Alliance took home the $600,000 top prize in sensational style. The Swedish side beat hometown heroes Team Falcons for the title.
Alliance star Hakis, real name John Hakansson, said: “It feels amazing. It's still kind of surreal — after 14 games of Apex Legends, you're kind of brainwashed. I'm generally pretty empty and super, super tired, but super happy and super excited. It still feels unreal.”
Hakis added: “I think the most enjoyable thing for us was definitely getting revenge. We had a chance to win the whole tournament in the game before 14 and we had to go again. He won the next game it was amazing. This is probably one of the closest tournaments I have ever played.
“The Falcons played great. They are definitely a highly respected team and one of the most successful in the entire game. Personally, I find it funny when the fans cheer for the Falcons. They are so passionate. We ourselves were making jokes in the middle of the game, saying: “Come on, Falcons!”. They're pretty special and that's it.”
The Esports World Cup, which started on July 3 and will run until August 25, features 22 global competitions in 21 top games.
