The Apex Legends Global Series Championship crowned a new world champion on Sunday, and in the process named a new MVP of the tournament. And, in a move that came as no real surprise, Furia in-game leader Jacob “HisWattson” McMillin took home the honors as most valuable player of the tournament.
Furia entered the Raleigh LAN as something of a wild card. The team dominated the North American Last Chance Qualifier after switching IGLs at the last minute, bringing in HisWattson in favor of former leader Will “TeQ” Starck. The team used off-kilter team compositions, using legends like Seer, Mad Maggie, and Fuse when very few other teams did, and their extremely aggressive style seemed to run in the face of the conservative meta that’s reigned in pro Apex for nearly its entire lifespan.
Then Furia got to Raleigh, and proceeded to cut through the star-studded Apex Legends lobbies like a machete through a vat of soft butter.
The award is a deserved moment of vindication for HisWattson, who had never played on LAN before and faced plenty of criticism for Furia’s aggressive playstyle.
It’s difficult to say it wasn’t effective, however. Furia dominated nearly every lobby they played in, finishing second place in the winners bracket that many pros called the most difficult lobby in Apex history, then following the performance up by leading Furia to the most points scored in the ALGS Finals. In addition to his shot-calling, HisWattson’s own mechanical skill was surpassed by very few players. One of those players ended up being one of his teammates, as Scott “Pandxrz” Maynard took home the Apex Predator award for most eliminations in the finals lobby.
It may well have been the unrelenting aggression that proved Furia’s downfall in the end, as the first team to reach 50 points in the match point format couldn’t secure a win to end the championship. But Furia was never going to be touched for second place, and the team went down playing the style that they wanted to play. Not many teams can say that, and say they did it so successfully.
With a performance that could potentially redefine the game’s meta and securing a $300,000 prize for his team, HisWattson’s MVP performance marks the player as one of the best in the game, if not the best.
Of course, many Furia fans already thought that. Now, everyone knows it.
