RIYADH: The Esports World Cup’s “Super Sunday” in Riyadh had 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 esports festival, which has a record-breaking prize pool of $60 million, had $7 million presented to the competitors at Boulevard Riyadh City.
KPL Dream Team claimed $1 million with an astonishing “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 final.
Gemini, whose real name is Jia Yi, the coach of KPL Dream Team, said: “It’s because of the teamwork. We have good techniques and we worked hard for this event. It’s been a long time that we’ve been playing this game. This is how we can take this event. I would like to thank our fans. They came all the way from China to support us here. The facilities here are excellent. It has been great to play here.”
The story of the day, however, was “Rainbow Six Siege” where Team BDS followed up their 2022 and 2023 successes at Gamers8, organized by the Saudi Esports Federation. Not only did they create gaming history, but they did so by sweeping w7m esports 3-0 in the final.
Team BDS analyst eaglemees, real name Mees van der Arend, said: “We are all very happy at being Gamers8 and Esports World Cup back-to-back-to-back champions. I don’t think there are any teams that have been able to do this and create history. We’re elated. Emotions are running high. Now we take some time to relax and then focus on our next tournament.”
The Swiss/French organization earned $750,000 for their tournament-winning exploits. In the “Apex Legends” tournament at the SEF Arena at Boulevard Riyadh City, Alliance took home the $600,000 top prize in sensational style. The Swedish side pipped hometown heroes Team Falcons for the title.
Alliance star Hakis, real name John Hakansson, said: “It feels amazing. It’s still kind of unreal — after 14 games of ‘Apex Legends,’ you are kind of cooked in the brain. Overall, I’m pretty empty and super, super tired but super happy and super excited. It still does feel unreal.”
Hakis added: “I think the most pleasing thing for us was definitely making the revenge. We had the chance to win the whole tournament in the game before 14 and we had to go again. To win the next game felt amazing. This is probably one of the closest tournaments we ever played.
“Falcons played amazing. They’re definitely a very respected team and one of the most successful in the whole game. Personally, I find it funny when the fans are cheering for Falcons. They’re so passionate. We were kind of making jokes mid-game ourselves being like: ‘Let’s go, Falcons!’ They’re pretty special and it is what it is.”
The Esports World Cup, which began on July 3 and runs until Aug. 25, features 22 global competitions in 21 leading games.
