Apeks Takes A Break Following Poor Performances

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team Apeks have withdrawn from ESEA Advanced and announced that the team will take a break from competing. The decision follows a streak of poor performances over the last few weeks.

On Monday, September 26, Apeks have revealed that they have withdrawn its main CS:GO roster from all ongoing and upcoming tournaments, including ESEA Advanced Season 42, where the European squad were fighting through the upper bracket of the playoffs.

The shocking move comes following Apeks’ poor performances over the last few weeks, as the team failed to produce the showings expected of them. Notably, in the ESEA Advanced S42, Apeks finished the group stage in 25th place with a 8-4 record and weren’t convincing in the playoffs either.

In the knockout stage, Apeks won their first two series against HOTU and TAG, albeit they needed three maps in each match and struggled against vastly inferior teams. That, combined with Apeks’ iffy performances over the last month, led the organization to put the entire roster on break, concluding that the team needs “time to reflect and evaluate.”

Interestingly, the news come just six weeks after Apeks finished its rebuilding process, signing new players to the squad in a bid to compete at the highest level. Some of the most notable signings of the offseason included Justinas “jL” Lekavicius and Richard “shox” Papillon, but despite all the reinforcements, success was hard to come by.

Despite signing two high-profile players, Apeks have failed to translate it into tangible results. Most notably, Apeks missed out on the spot at the IEM Road to Rio EME, following an overtime defeat against GamerLegion in the fourth open qualifiers.

Before that, Apeks also crashed out of IEM RMR European Open Qualifier #1 and #3 in 33rd-64th place. Since then, Apes have attended FiReLEAGUE 2022: Europe but finished in fifth-eight place, and were just as unsuccessful at Fragadelphia 17: Last Chance Qualifier, claiming another top eight placement.

Apeks showed some life at the Fragadelphia 17 main event, where they reached the semi-finals but got eliminated by BIG Academy and placed third-fourth. Most recently, Apeks attended CCT Central Europe Series #2, where they placed 19th-21th out of 23 participating teams, with just one series win against For The Win Esports.

Meanwhile, they proved inefficient against eSuba, HONORIS, and Enterprise, ranked no.96, no.90, and no.65 in the world. With those results, Apeks took a steep dive down the global ladder, where they currently sit in 74th place, far from the organization’s peak of 28th.

“Due to our current state we have decided to withdraw the main CS team from all competitions,” said Apeks.

“Our results have been far from good enough, and we need time to reflect and evaluate until we feel ready.”

It remains to be seen what’s next for Apeks; however, we can be sure that we won’t see the European mix in the server for a while longer. How long Apeks will remain out of action is anyone’s guess, but given their poor performances, it’s fair to say that Apeks won’t be back for at least a few weeks.

This also brings up a question of whether Apeks will look to make further roster changes, which is a possibility, despite their recent investment in jL and shox. Interestingly, the team’s IGL, STYKO, is the only player with a negative performance rating.

Since joining the team, Shox has averaged 1.00, Joakim “jhaem2 Myrbostad 1.11, Tim “nawwk” Jonasson 1.21, and jL 1.13 performance rating. Yet despite the solid figures, the team hasn’t impressed, nor have Apeks claimed a single tournament title since April, when they won Tipsport Cup Bratislava 2022.