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A1 Adria League Champions: Where Are They Now?

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Throughout almost a decade of competition, we’ve seen dozens of outstanding players take to the stage of the A1 Adria League, with some of them winning the tournament multiple times. Out of all the winners, however, some went on to make names for themselves well outside the region and compete with some of the best in the world.

Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač and Nemanja “nexa” Isaković

Two high-profile players from the early days of A1AL went on to have impressive careers in CS:GO and CS2. They were a part of the Valiance&Co. lineup that won Season 2, and later both joined G2 Esports. HuNter plays for G2 to this day, with almost six years of experience in playing at the highest level. Nexa, on the other hand, left G2 to join another top organisation, OG, before returning to G2 for a brief period in late 2023 and 2024. After that stint, he transitioned to Bleed Esports and he is now playing for BC.Game Esports. 

Dino “LIMIT” Tot

Returning to League of Legends, another Croatian player left a mark on the League. After winning the League with Bontech, LIMIT spent some time in ASUS ROG ELITE and other regional teams before joining SK Gaming in 2019. After leaving one German organisation, he joined another, Schalke 04 Esports, which he left in 2021 for a stint at Team BDS. LIMIT currently plays for BIG as support.

Toni “Sacre” Sabalić

One of the two notable Croatian League of Legends players on this list, Sacre was a part of the KlikTech lineup and won the first-ever season of the A1 Adria League. Sacre joined G2 Esports after leaving KlikTech in 2018, and was later a part of several notable teams from Europe, such as SK Gaming, Fenerbahce, GamerLegion and Schalke 04 Esports. Today, Sacre is playing for Eintracht Frankfurt esports, the esports division of the German football club.

Damjan “kyxsan” Stoilkovski

Returning to Counter-Strike, we must mention a younger player who made quite an effect on the A1 Adria League between 2020 and 2022. The Macedonian IGL nad Rifler played for QSKE Gaming, Good Game Global and BLUEJAYS and participated in five A1AL seasons, winning Season 9 with BLUEJAYS. Damjan left BLUEJAYS to join Apeks, and later on went to Scandinavian powerhouse HEROIC before moving to Team Falcons early in 2025. Kyxsan was a part of the lineup that won second place at the PGL Cluj-Napoca 2025 with the Falcons.

Notable mention: Zero Tenacity

While not being a single player, this list deserves to mention Z10, the team that won 4 seasons of the A1 Adria League between 2022 and 2024 and is the reigning champion of the League in Counter-Strike. Currently sitting at 51st place in the HLTV rankings, Z10 is one of the few regional teams to play and win with consistency. Their mark on the A1 Adria League can not be overstated, and what makes it even more impressive is that they managed to accomplish it all with almost no changes to their lineup, further emphasising that they are one of the most consistent teams to have played in the League. 

Who shapes the growth of regional esports?

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As we know gaming is one of the biggest industries in the world and esports is getting more and more attention by the day. Eastern countries were the first to recognize its potential, and then Europe, and North and South America followed. Today we have successful esports tournaments all around the world.

A1 Adria League has been active for a long time now, actively working on improving esports in the Adriatic region, but there are many organizations that have been supporting the same story and providing a battlefield where the regional esports players will shine.

Regional esports organizations

There are a lot of positive examples of regional organizations that want to bring regional esports to a higher level. Good Game Global is a familiar name in regional esports as well and they had their mark in the growth of competitive esports, raising popularity in the b2b sectors and of course running their own league for students… They have been creating esports content, influencer campaigns, and other esports initiatives since 2016.

Fortuna Esports with their EBL franchise have been shaping careers for many League of Legends superstars who had their shine in the most prestigious organizations in the world. OGA Dota Pit brought an official Minor event to Croatia alongside teams like Fnatic, Astralis, Liquid, OG, … and what can we even say about Relog Media who surpassed the region a long time ago, but they are still supporting local players with invites to their multi-million dollar tournaments.

Some of the events to mention are Rikon, primarily a science fiction convention that sometimes organizes smaller esports tournaments. Then we would also mention Fantastic Esports and their Fantastic Gaming Show, Beyond Esports Conference, local events and tournaments ran by esports federations, and more.

 

A1 Adria League is one of the projects that is doing the most for the region. We have been active since 2017. Since then we have had 12 successful seasons (the 13th is ongoing). Every year we have more and more players who want to compete and maybe get a chance to be recognized by someone. Just last year we had:

  • over 250 hours streamed
  • 200k live views
  • 95k live viewers
  • over 1000 players

Is the Adriatic region giving any future to the players?

The fact that esports isn’t taken seriously is mostly affecting the players who don’t have a future here but need to play for foreign organizations and teams. The most recent cases are the players from Guild Eagles. RigoN just signed for BIG, while juanflatroo and sinnopsyy went to ITB, and we all know the quality of these players.

This is why A1AL is doing the most for the region. Even though the players at the moment don’t have a bright future with domestic teams, they get recognized playing our tournaments. Some of the players who played in A1AL and are now in Europe are:

  • Rigon “rigoN” Gashi – Played for BNE/Guild Eagles – Just a couple of days ago signed for BIG
  • Dionis “sinnopsyy” Budeci and Flatron “juanflatroo” Halimi – Played for BNE/Guild Eagles and recently signed to play under ITB (UK org)
  • Pavle “maden” Bošković – ATM plays for Falcons, previously played for ENCE
  • Toni “Sacre” Sabalić – Played for SK Gaming, currently at Schalke 04
  • Dino “LIMIT” Tot – As a player, we have seen him at SK Gaming, Schalke 04, and BDS, currently he is the assistant coach for SK
  • Nemanja “huNter-” Kovač i Nemanja “nexa” Isaković – won our A1AL season 2 with Valiance&Co, currently at G2 Esports