One of EMEA’s most successful free agent rosters in Apex Legends finally found a home after a year of searching today, and are now backed by an organization who returns to the scene after a tumultuous year.
Aurora Gaming has re-entered Apex Legends by signing Fire Beavers, comprised of team captain and IGL Kiryl “9impulse” Kostsiu, Lev “taskmast33r” Grigoriev, Svyatoslav “ojrein” Korochinsky, and coach Nikita “clawz” Marchinsky. They will now compete under the Aurora banner for the ALGS Championship in Birmingham.
Fire Beavers’ current iteration started in 2021 as one of the last unsigned CIS teams in the EMEA Pro League, playing at the time with Danila “Sunset” Soloviov. They would compete for six months before being sponsored by ZETA DIVISION to compete in the 2021-2022 ALGS, finding moderate success with a 12th place Pro League finish, and 18th at the 2022 Championship before leaving the org on July 15, 2022.
Sunset would leave the team during the offseason, as Fire Beavers would later reform for the 2023 ALGS, completing their roster with clawz and ojrein. The team would find their domestic stride, earning a fourth place finish in the Pro League before disaster stuck, as visa issues would deny Fire Beavers a chance to compete on the international stage.
This would not be the first time that CIS players and teams would be denied access to LAN events due to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Team Empire would have their visas denied for the 2022 Championship, Alliance’s Effect got no response on his visa status for the 2023 Split One Playoffs, and Aurora Gaming’s old roster would suffer the worst, missing the Split One Playoffs completely and losing one of their starting players for the Split Two Playoffs.
Despite the setbacks, Fire Beavers would rally back for Split Two, once again finishing in fourth place domestically alongside visa approval for the London Playoffs, ending the event in the grand finals at 17th place while securing enough circuit points to qualify for the Championship.
Related: Disguised Toast adds another esports team to his collection with ALGS Championship squad
Aurora Gaming dropped their roster (the former Team Empire) following their 31st place finish at the Split Two Playoffs, and failure to qualify for the Championship via circuit points and the LCQ.
Now entering the Championship, Aurora Gaming stands as one of two teams with CIS players out of the 40 teams attending, alongside Alliance’s Effect (Effect’s Liquipedia page notes that he does not wish to be represented by his native Russian flag). With their past results throughout the year, Aurora stands once again as an audience favorite and heavy contender for the trophy.
Aurora Gaming will compete in in the first block of Championship games in Group A, starting at 4am CT on Wednesday, Sept. 6. Fans can directly spectate the team by watching through Twitch’s Command Center, or watching the overall coverage on the main PlayApex streams on Twitch and Youtube.
