After weeks of eager speculation, ALGS fans finally know where Sweet is going. Luminosity Gaming is bringing the former NRG Apex Legends IGL into the fold for the 2024 season.
Both Sweet and LG announced the move today, alongside teammates Slayr and Nicholas “Fuhhnq” Wall. Former NRG teammate Nathan “Nafen” Nguyen will be a substitute for the squad so that the team will retain NRG’s position in the North American Pro League.
On his stream, Sweet credited LG’s player-first mentality as a major reason for signing with the org. Despite saying he signed a contract with LG a while ago, the announcement was delayed until today for various reasons, leading to much speculation that there was something of an extended bidding war or back-and-forth between orgs for the popular player. The move is a no-brainer for LG, however. After dropping its former squad (Neazul, YanYa, Jaguares, and coach Pistillo) that had seen considerable and consistent success in ALGS, Sweet made the most sense for an org looking to get over the hump and make waves in the pro scene.
Sweet is widely regarded as one of the best players and IGLs in the world and comes off a run with NRG where the team frequently challenged the likes of TSM for the title of best team in North America. Last year started off hot for Sweet and teammates nafen and Gild as the team recorded a second-place finish in the Split One Playoffs in London, just behind their NA rivals in TSM.
The final two events of the year didn’t go as planned, however, with 11th and 15th-place finishes at the Split Two Playoffs and Championship falling short of NRG’s lofty expectations. With the team needing a reset, NRG left the scene completely and Gild departed the trio in favor of Moist Esports.
Slayr and Fuhhnq might not be familiar names to a casual audience, but the pair of controller players have quietly made a name for themselves in and around ALGS play. Slayr last played in the Pro League with free agent squad SCS, while Fuhhnq’s most notable performances include teaming with TeQ and Xynew on Meat Lovers. Both are known for their fighting ability and will look to enter into the upper echelons of pro Apex while led by the veteran Sweet.
But will they immediately challenge at the top? It’s difficult to say. The team makes sense on paper, but they’ll rely heavily on Sweet as a veteran presence when working out how the team functions in a competitive setting. We’ve seen bets on relatively untested talent pay off big in the ALGS before, but it’s hard to predict how a team will perform and react to adversity until we see them in true high-pressure situations.
Either way, LG will certainly be NA’s most interesting team to watch when the ALGS Pro League returns on Jan. 21.
