Best of A1AL – The most successful players and teams!

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The A1 Adria League has existed since 2017, and since then, we have hosted 13 seasons, while the 14th is ongoing. Many talented teams and players have competed in more than 10 games overall. If you’ve ever wondered who won the most trophies, who was most consistent, and who noted down the most TOP4 appearances, the answer is right below. Keep reading to find out who the best of the best are in the A1 Adria League.

Most rewarded CS2 competitors in the A1AL

Since CS2 or CS: GO, whichever you prefer, has been our main game since A1AL’s inception, we can start with our best shooters. Firstly, I have got to say that there have been many successful teams over the years that are worth mentioning. As you all remember first two A1AL seasons were won by Valiance, while KlikTech made it to top 4. In those early days, Level Up Esports, Blink, and Team uNIQUE also showed their supremacy. Furthermore, Portugal, iNation, 4glory, and BLUEJAYS were all big regional names that competed in A1AL and secured high spots.

If we fast forward to Season 9 Zero Tenacity starts their reign. Even though that season they placed second, the next three they won without much resistance becoming back to back to back champions. Precisely because Z10 won three consecutive trophies, it’s our most rewarded team ever!

When it comes to the most successful CS2 players Filip “aVN” Belojica and  Milos “dEE” Marceta are the most rewarded ones. Former with five and the latter with three, respectfully. Filip won the A1 Adria League twice with Z10, twice with Level Up Esports, and once with ex-BLUEJAYS back in season 4.

A1AL Season 11 Zero Tenacity CSGO

FIFA’s unsurpassed and unmatched player

FIFA or EAFC is another game that has been in the A1 Adria League for the majority of the seasons. It was featured in the first season, with a little break, until in the fifth season we brought it back permanently. That year our trio of veterans was born, Tarik Novo (ex Amke), esad1memic, and brstimir. These three players would go on to compete in almost every season up until current. Furthermore, they didn’t just compete in the low stages of the competition, but they almost always managed to get to TOP 8 or TOP 4.

After Esad Memic won that fifth season, where Novo was in third place, the reign of Novo’s terror began. In the sixth season, Novo won his first title, followed by Memic and brstimir in second and third place respectively. This scenario repeated for two more seasons, except that in S7 and S8 brstimir was vice-champion and Memic third place. Novo continued to be dominant and win titles, and at this moment he has six titles!

I also wanted to mention Milos “brstimir” Majdevac, a player who never won the league but managed to win second or third place almost every single season! If we are talking about consistency, brstimir is our guy.

Furthermore, apart from Novo, players worth mentioning are Gruby and GAME ON Marac who both won the league.

When talking about FIFA I have to mention our newly added FC Mobile game that has been a part of A1AL since the 12th season. So far SHAQ has been the most successful, being the only champion in the game. The defending champion is back in the current season, and we will see if we have a new Tarik Novo on our hands.

Tarik Novo A1 Adria League 2

Best of Brawl Stars

A1 Adria League went mobile in season 2 but Brawl Stars was first introduced in season 5. At the beginning of each season, a new winner was announced up until team Salada de Frutas entered the stage. This team is without a doubt unpreceded and the most rewarded. Since the ninth season, excluding S10 where they were vice-champions, until the current 14th season, Salada won every single time amounting to four A1AL titles.

Moreover, when talking about individual talents in this game, Salada’s players would be the most successful ones. Nikola “DzonDzon” Brajkovic boasts seven titles and two runner-up awards, while his teammate Andrej “Andrey” Pausic has six A1AL titles and also two runner-ups.

A1 Adria League Salada de Frutas 2

A1AL mini tournament most rewarded teams

As I said at the beginning we have hosted more than 10 games overall. There were competitions in Clash Royale, Hearthstone, Dota 2, League of Legends, PUBG, Valorant, F1, Trackmania, and Fortnite.

In CR the most successful was Nikola, who won the title two times individually and one time as part of Joza Esports. LoL’s most rewarded team in the league was Harmony, while in the PUBG the most dominant was Entropiq who won three consecutive titles (S9, S10, and S11).

Seven exciting years of A1 Adria League in the making!

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Believe it or not, we have been through six years (2024 being the seventh one) and 12 exciting seasons of the A1 Adria League while two new ones are awaiting this year. We have come very far since the inception of the league and our first tournament. After many different games and a lot of format changes, we have arrived at today. Take a look at what made the A1 Adria League great, enjoy a trip down memory lane, and reminisce together with us.

From 2017 to today

Everything began with three games and at that time unknown teams. Today we are proud to have hosted some of the best European names in League of Legends, CS:GO, now CS2, and FIFA. Valiance&CO won the league in the first season with Nexa and Hunter who are now playing best European CS2 tournaments with G2 Esports. And that’s not all. That same season we also saw Sacre compete who would later go on to play in EU LCS.

Similar to the initial season, the second one was remarkable as well. That is when we changed the name of the league from VIP Adria League to A1 Adria League, added two new games, Clash Royale and Hearthstone, went mobile, and introduced a new tournament format.

The year 2018 and seasons 3 and 4 introduced Dota in the A1 Adria League and we have seen a tremendous rise in the prize pool between these two seasons. While Team uNIQUE took home 1000 euros, the winners of the 4th season in CS:GO ex-BLUEJAYS won 5000 euros.

CS:GO and FIFA in their prime

Moving forward to next year, Dota 2 and Hearthstone were replaced with Brawl Stars, a game that is still immensely popular and one of our featured games today. Many players who are still competing in 2024 in A1AL made their debuts in season 5 such as Tarik Novo, Esad Memic, brstimir in FIFA, and 4glory and Blink in CS:GO. Now as we know, Tarik Novo has six titles behind him and is expected to win even more.

As we know everything has an end except League of Legends, and in that matter, this MOBA made its return in 2021 with seasons 7 and 8 when Split Riders and Metamoon triumphed. While Tarik started his reign in FIFA. That year we unfortunately didn’t have LAN at the end of the year but we survived COVID better than we hoped as we had almost 30.000 watched hours with more than 200.000 live views.

The return of the LAN

The year 2022 brought back the LAN event and besides that, the finish of the jubilee 10th season of the A1 Adria League watched over 100,000 unique viewers. We introduced new games and a mini-tournament format where the additional games were played for one or two weekends instead of the whole season. Such was PUBG where Entropiq took the title, League of Legends, F1, and VALORANT who made its debut.

We didn’t stop at seven games and last year we had a total of nine different games and competitions. With CS:GO (now CS2), FIFA23 (now EAFC24), and Brawl Stars as main games, we introduced for the first time Fortnite, Trackmania and Rainbow Six Siege. Additionally, League of Legends, PUBG, and VALORANT stayed in the league as mini-tournaments.

Season 12 last November had an amazing LAN finish where the titles went out to Tarik Novo in EAFC24, Salada de Frutas in Brawl Stars, Zero Tenacity in CS2, and SHAQ came victorious in EAFC24 Mobile. Apart from the games, we hosted many different events as a part of Reboot InfoGamer powered by A1 with more than 50 hours of entertainment and a prize pool of more than 17,000 euros.

We already mentioned that this season the prize pool will be a whopping 40,000 euros and that the competition will be as exciting as ever with the first qualifiers starting at the beginning of June.

Get ready and sign up!

How does gaming on smartphones move the boundaries of esports

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Esports was at the beginning limited only to personal computers. With the development of technology, it became possible to compete on consoles, and later on smartphones too. It is exactly the smartphones that in recent years have been moving the boundaries of esports.

Regardless of which research you take into account, gaming on smartphones and tablets, popularly called mobile gaming, is a segment that should grow the fastest. Faster than gaming on personal computers and gaming consoles. Everyone who owns a smartphone is a potential “gamer”. A lot of people today play on their phones and unintentionally make the gamer’s statistics. They play games while traveling or while taking a break from daily activities. Among so many players there are those who compete in mobile games. 

This type of gamer exists in our region too and A1 Adria League is showing that for seasons including at least one mobile game in its tournament. Earlier it was the popular game Clash Royale, and in the eighth season, which was held last year, all the lights of mobile gaming were on Brawl Stars. 

Last summer it was the best domestic Brawl Stars players such as Lavvek, Adry, Andrey, and DzonDzon who represented the region in the Clash of Leagues tournament in Salzburg, in which the best players from five Central European Leagues and regional A1 Adria League participate. 

clash of leagues mobile esports

Discussions about whether esports on mobile devices are real esports are long over. Smartphones and tablets are today technically so developed that they can support more demanding games too. Big developers and video game publishers have in mind the potential that mobile gaming has. Riot Games studio which made the ultra-popular League of Legends and VALORANT, also published a mobile version of the most popular MOBA game: League of Legends: Wild Rift. Call of Duty mobile has been available for a while now for everyone who prefers shooting on mobile platforms. 

How can mobile esports help women enter esports?

With the growth of esports, the age boundaries of entering the world of competitive gaming are being moved. Regardless of the game, a lot of them are adapted to the youngest players, who very intuitively, using touchscreen controls can experience competitive gaming. 20 or more years ago to achieve this you needed to have some technical knowledge as well as a very expensive, and sometimes, unavailable device. 

Of course, some of them will in the future play on gaming consoles and personal computers, but will at that point already have experienced something that wasn’t available to the Millenials, not to mention older generations. Of course, mobile esports isn’t only meant for younger players.

Female players still make up a very small percentage of active participants in esports. The most popular tournament for girls is the Women Star League Invitational in-game Mobile Legends: Bang Bang if we look at data on an active number of audience and the number of watched hours.

One of the ways in which we could include more females in the world of esports is exactly mobile esports. You wouldn’t need any special equipment for it, and the community isn’t as defined and exclusive as those when gaming on PCs or consoles. 

Woman Star League

However, for mobile esports or any kind of mobile gaming, it’s important to have a smartphone. That’s how the best regional Brawl Stars players in the grand finale of Clash of Leagues in LEVEL Up Arena in Salzburg competed on Xiaomi Redmi Note 10 5G devices which at least gave them an even chance with the best players of other countries. 

When we talk about MOBA or similar games, which are more demanding to both players and devices, it’s important to have a fast response speed so you can run the game without any problems. This was exactly what Xiaomi provided to our guys. What kind of device is needed for the serious competition will depend on the game, and of course on the player. Even the smallest advantage in performance in crucial moments can be decisive.

Mobile gaming and mobile esports are already a part of the gaming industry or better esports industry. It will surely grow in the future, as we are even now raising new generations of gamers, professional or not. 

Hearthstone LAN Finals

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The same as last year we will have the best 4 of our HS players compete for the title!

Let us introduce the player that will be duking it out on the main stage.

1. Reqvam – the home soil favourite, he managed to defeat everyone in the online playoffs so all eyes will be upon him and everyone is going to be gunning to counter him and thinking of ways how to defeat him.

2. Dimi – well known throughout the region almost always manages to qualify for LAN and has been consistent these past few years, in the online playoffs, he only lost to Reqvam (Twice) once in the upper winner finals and once in the grand finals, if he manages to find a way to overcome him on the main stage the trophy won’t be far away.

3. Uberkaiser – at this point a famous face in the HS Adria community a streamer and a frequent HS competitor he won a few national tournaments but will he have the same success on foreign soil, we await to find out!

4. Paljuha – another regular streamer and glory-seeking player he will have the advantage of the home crowd as well, he knows what he needs to do and we can’t wait to see him try it on the main stage.

You will be able to follow the action as always on our channels, however, don’t miss your chance for real live-action and join us at Reboot Infogamer  Zagreb

Single-elimination bracket, all matches Bo3

15:00 reqvam vs. paljuha
16:00 Dimi vs. uberkaiser
17:00 Third place match
18:00 Grand Finals


Season 4 LAN Finals

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For the third year in a row, the LAN finals of A1 Adria League will be part of Reboot InfoGamer – one of the biggest gaming fairs in Europe!

The best gamers from all over the region will occupy the A1 Adria League hall across the three days (15th – 17th of November). They will be competing at the state of the art stage one the best players in the region deserves. Everything will be happening in front of a live audience!

Clash Royale & Hearthstone

We will kick things off with Clash Royale and Hearthstone finals on the 15th of November. In each game, four best players will be competing in double-elimination format for the glory and the majority of the 1500 Euros prize pool.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

Day after, on Saturday 16th of November four CS:GO teams that proved to be the best in the online part of the League will get a chance to be crowned the champions of A1 Adria League Season 4. A single-elimination format does not allow mistakes. The prize pool for CS:GO is 10.000 Euros!

Last year Valiance&CO and Locastc Esports put out a real show in the semis. It remains to be seen which teams will be causing the most hype in Season 4!

Dota 2

The last day of the LAN finals and Reboot InfoGamer is reserved for Dota 2. For the first time ever in the history of the League will be having LAN finals for MOBA that defined the genre. The format is the same as for CS:GO and so is the prize pool.

General Info

Reboot InfoGamer 2019 will be held at Zagrebački velesajam from the 12th of the 17th of November. New games, esports, new hardware, giveaways, influencers and much more awaits you in new edition of the biggest gaming fair in this part of Europe.

A1 Adria League LAN finals will have their own hall with additional activities for visitors as well as some news we are not allowed to publish yet. Keep in mind that in order to visit the A1AL LAN finals you will have to buy a ticket for the fair. All information can be found on the official pages of Reboot InfoGamer.

For all those who won’t be able to join us all matches will be live streamed on official A1 Adria League channels.

If you want to be up to date with everything that is happening in the League make sure to check out a1adrialeague.com.

Sign up for Hearthstone open qualifiers for October

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The new round of Open Qualifiers for A1 Adria League Season 4 is starting as we seek four more players to join the Online Playoffs and battle for LAN finals in Zagreb!

You will have four Open Qualifiers to earn points and prize money. The rest of the format is pretty simple:

mobilestructure

Four of the best players in Season 4 will get a chance to compete in front of the live audience at LAN finals on one of the biggest gaming fairs in Europe – Reboot InfoGamer 2019!

Every weekly Open Qualifier includes prize pool for the first spot of 20€. Prize pool for the Monthly Finals is 150€ while the main prize will be 1500€ prize pool at the LAN finals.

So, what are you waiting for? This is your chance to prove that you are the best Hearthstone player in the region!

Introducing the new format for Hearthstone – The Shielded Conquest

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As many of you already know, in the middle of the Hearthstone qualifiers for the A1 Adria League Season 4 Blizzard changed the format of all of their official competitions from Specialist to Shielded Conquest.

In agreement with Blizzard, we will also make the same change. Starting with the Open Qualifiers in October we will be using Shielded Conquest. Hopefully until the end of Season 4. It’s important that players compete in the same format throughout the whole competition but the main reason still cannot be announced publicly. For that one, you’ll have to be patient just a little bit more.

The Shielded Conquest – How does it work?

  • It’s a best of three series
  • The two battling players bring four decks, each from a unique class.
  • The match starts with a Shield Phase where both players will choose one of their own decks to “protect” that cannot be banned.
  • Each player will then ban one of their opponents’ decks, removing it from the pool.
  • Each player then selects which of their eligible decks they would like to play first, then begin their first game of the match.
  • After the first game has concluded, the winning deck is removed from the pool before both players pick which of their remaining decks they would like to play next.
  • If after the second game one player is 2-0, then the match is over!
  • If the score is 1-1, then the winning deck from the second game is removed from the pool and both players will choose their third and final deck to decide the series.

One of the biggest problems with the old Conquest format was that the player had to win with all of his decks but this way, you’ll only have to win with two of them!

We hope the new change will light up your will for competition even more! We have only four spots left open in the Online Playoffs so make sure to qualify for them during October.

First Open Qualifier for October will be played on Saturday the 5th!

Hearthstone Monthly Finals for September

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The first round of Open Qualifiers is finished! We now know the names of the Top 8 players that will be competing in the September Monthly Finals! Stakes are high because those players that manage to secure Top 4 will advance to the Online Playoffs!

Hearthstone Monthly Finals will be played on 30th of September @ 19:00! You can follow all of the action on our official channels:
YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK, TWITCH

Here are the players!

Monthly Finals will be played in double-elimination format which means that when a player loses two matches he is out of the tournament. All additional information can be found on the official page of the cup.

The prize pool for Monthly Finals is 150 Euros:
1. 75€ + Qualified for Online Playoffs
2. 50€ + Qualified for Online Playoffs
3. 25€ + Qualified for Online Playoffs
4. Qualified for Online Playoffs

Your host for the evening will be Stefan “Djuka93” Đukić, renowned player and streamer in our region.

reqvam: “I think winning a regional tournament carries special value.”

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Hearthstone players had probably the toughest schedule out of all competitors in the A1 Adria League this season. Six open qualifiers with over 40 signed up players for each one. Qualifiers played every couple of days and only the 8 of the best players with the highest amount of points advancing to the playoffs.

One player separated himself above the rest during the qualifiers – Franjo “reqvam” Blažević won two of the six qualifiers and placed in Top 4 in two others. He kept the good form going into the playoffs and won the whole thing in the end. He stayed true to his Mage deck all the way, and it didn’t disappoint him. We talked to reqvam after his big win.


1. What were your expectations heading into the A1 Adria League Season 3?

reqvam: “My expectations were high, to begin with. I entered the season with the goal of achieving a top 8 finish in points – I believed I could be consistent throughout the Qualifiers and achieve good overall results. The two wins were the icing on the cake and a great reward for solid play throughout the season.”

2. Why did you pick Conjurer Mage deck? Was that decision based on what are the other players bringing or just your preference?

reqvam: “The main reason for picking this Mage deck was plain and simple – I think it’s the best deck for the format. The deck just doesn’t have weaknesses that are exploitable enough to make it worthwhile for opponents to play “counters” decks such as OTK Paladin or Aggro Overload Shaman. On top of that, looking at the field in the Qualifiers (25% Warrior, 15-20% Rogue) the deck was simply the correct choice (a favored Warrior matchup, and a 50-50 Rogue matchup where I could also rely on outplay potential).”

“As far as the Playoffs were concerned, I took a look at the decks that other players played in previous qualifiers, and made the logical choice of playing Mage. Naturally, the fact that this Mage deck is the only deck I enjoy playing at the moment was an added benefit. But, of course, had I thought there was a better choice than Mage, I would not have hesitated in picking another class.”

3. What did you think of your competition? Were you hoping to avoid some of the decks because of the bad match-up or maybe even players?

reqvam: “The competition was good, there were a lot of good players in this year’s Playoffs. The ones I would single out are definitely LemyBiB and uberkaiser. I expected the three of us to be vying for the top 3 spots and it turned out just like that.”

“LemyBiB and I crossed paths in this season a total of 5 times, and the games were very close every time, so I wasn’t surprised at all to be facing him in the Finals. I would say he was the toughest opponent to beat. As far as dodging bad matchups is concerned, I wasn’t too worried about any decks because I didn’t find it likely to run into decks like OTK Paladin or Aggro Overload Shaman. Even then, I would say the matchups are at worst a 45% for Mage, and I was willing to take those odds.”

4. What does winning the A1 Adria League S3 mean to you?

reqvam: “Winning Season 3 of the A1 Adria League certainly means a great deal to me. I think winning a regional tournament carries special value, and when you add on the fact that it’s the biggest tournament I’ve won so far, that makes it all the sweeter.”

5. What’s next for you? Where can we see you competing in the near future?

reqvam: “The next bigger tournaments I will be participating in are Season 4 of the A1 Adria League and after that, I will be competing in Masters Tour Bucharest in October for which I qualified at the start of this month!”

6. So we’ll see you in the next season of A1 Adria League as well?

reqvam: “Of course! Hopefully, I’ll be able to defend the title!”

We wish reqvam all the best in future competitions. He certainly proved to be one of the best Hearthstone players in the Adriatic region!

Top 8 Hearthstone players enter the playoffs, but only one will be crowned the Season 3 champion

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The competition was fierce the cups tough but we have finally arrived at the stage where only the best 8 in the region remain!

The playoff stage will be played as a double elimination bracket, with all of the games being played out in bo3 series with the same specialist format.

The Hearthstone champion of Season 3 will be determined on:

BRACKET


PLAYOFF HS SEASON 3: 15.07.2019. 17:00 CEST

And all of us will be able to watch the show and cheer for your favorite team here:
YOUTUBE, FACEBOOK, and TWITCH.

LET US INTRODUCE OUR TOP 8 CONTENDERS FOR HEARTHSTONE PLAYOFFS

The first contender on our list is Franjo “Reqvam” Blažević, he managed to win not one but two of the 6 open cups, while also playing both times vs. LemyBiB and overcoming him the grand finals. Those two wins solidified his place on the leaderboard as the favorite of this season. Will he manage to stay on top faced with the other 7 players, the only thing left to do is watch and find out!

Miloš “LemyBiB” Milovanović who managed to get to the 2nd place not once not twice but 3 times with his trusty rogue (oh the irony). Does he have a score to settle with the guys who denied him the first place, oh yes he has!

Milan “Emerys” Pavičić, he was the one to open the Tournament as a whole since he managed to win the first open cup and also managed to almost win the 5th open cup as well where he finished 2nd which firmly secured his spot in the top 8 playoffs.

Nino “CG MagicZYYZA” Žižanovic our 4th contender for the title, a familiar face he was casting the last season grand finals in Zagreb, and he is a commendable foe as well not someone you should underestimate, he won the 5th open cup.

Saša “SaleSarma” Vrcelj and his steadfast warrior managed to win the 4th open qualifier and get their spot in the top 8 in the region, well deserved, the audience will be stuffed while watching him play, pun intended!

Uberkaiser a well-known player and streamer in the region, won several national tournaments, a well-experienced player with a lot up his sleeve, he didn’t manage to win any open cups but that won’t stop him from gunning at the first place in the playoffs!

Aleksandar “Wolf” Dimitrijević some would call him the bravest of all of the contenders the only one with a Murloc shaman deck, proving everyone that Mglrmglmglmg, well you get the point.

And last but not least Boris “D0nkey” Babić our last member of the elite 8, he managed to win the 2nd open cup, with his mech hunter, watch out here comes the boom!

GOOD LUCK AND HAVE FUN EVERYONE AND HAVE THE LUCK OF THE DRAW!

“May the odds be ever in your favor!” – Hunger Games