The Challenger Circuit serves as the definitive tier two scene of the Apex Legends Global Series: a proving ground for teams to showcase their worth and potentially earn a ticket to the Pro League with outstanding results. However, one team appears to have voluntarily stepped down, going undercover in the EMEA Challenger Circuit to continue competing against weaker teams, up until their exposure with last week’s tournament results.
Following the conclusion of EMEA’s third Challenger Circuit tournament of Split Two, Heroez parted ways with their roster on May 29 after many players went public with smurfing allegations against the entire team. Tobias “BaByLoNs” Dévérité, Florent “Faco” Thery, and Quentin “Klemmy” Etienne were all released after spending three months with the organization.
The trio previously competed as FromNowhere in the EMEA Split Two Pro League Qualifiers, ending in fifth place and gaining one of the eight Challenger Circuit slots to the Pro League. However, they would not live up to their previous results, ending the Split in 27th place and failing to qualify for the Split Two LAN.
With two months before the next ALGS event, Heroez would have lots of time to practice for the upcoming Last Chance Qualifier, potentially gaining one of the two remaining slots at the final LAN event of the 2022-2023 competitive year.
However, unbeknownst to the public and apparently their org, Heroez’s roster would allegedly continue competing in ALGS tournaments, going underneath a new team name and aliases to compete in the Challenger Circuit.
Nicolas “Amaazz” Sageot of team Infinite talked about his experiences in the third Challenger Circuit on social media, and how his personal experience was ruined because one team deliberately dropped on his squad round after round, forcing them to contest their landing zone or lose out on a match with zero points.
Following the results of Challenger Circuit Three, Amaazz launched his own independent investigation into the player “Belial,” who he suspected of being a Pro League player. Through research on Belial’s Steam profile, he was able to find BaByLoNs’ name underneath previous account names, further affirming his initial suspicions. Additional screenshots from Twitch and Discord showed direct evidence of BaByLoNs going underneath the alternate name, alongside other aliases when playing Apex outside of the Pro League.
The reported actions have led to a widespread call for additional moderation and security in the Challenger Circuit, with coaches and players from all regions responding to the news with sympathy for all teams affected in the lobby. SeaLion, coach of North America’s FURIA Esports, extended an offer to help any affected teams for free. Despite the griefing problems, Amaazz and Infinite were still able to win EMEA Challenger Circuit Three, but many other teams were still affected.
With all of the drama surrounding the organization, it’s still unclear if Heroez will retain their spot for the EMEA Last Chance Qualifier, or if the players that were released will be able to compete as a free agent squad. Set to run from June 21 to June 23, the LCQ is teams’ last shot at an international appearance in the 2022-2023 ALGS.
