Fragadelphia 17 preview: The overseas visitors

Fragadelphia 17 has not even begun, but the event already stands out among previous Fragadelphias for its notable prize pool for an event of this size, with 100k up for grabs, and the wide range of squads traveling from all across the world to compete against some of North America's best on home turf. With Fragadelphia 17 fast approaching, it's worth taking a look at the international squads who will be slugging it out for the lion's share of the prize pool.

Apeks: Turning around rough beginnings

Apeks is a lineup filled with a number of names that should be familiar to fans of North American Counter-Strike. Martin "STYKO" Styk spent some time with Cloud9 after his stint on mousesports, even attending the FACEIT Major with the squad. Joakim "jkaem" Myrbostad spent a significant amount of time in his career competing in North America with Renegades and later 100 Thieves. Then of course is Richard "shox" Papillon, who linked up with Apeks after the end of a seven-month tenure with Liquid.

With the roster being rounded out by former NIP AWPer Tim "nawwk" Jonasson, former Mad Lions rifler Justinas "jL" Lekavicius, and legendary coach Jakub "kuben" Gurczynski, one would expect this team to be breaking into the Top 30 at least, but that, unfortunately, has not been the case. In the squad's first real test since being revamped over the player break, Apeks missed out on a chance at competing the European RMRs for IEM Rio, as the international squad bombed out of all four open qualifiers, often not even coming close to the qualifying matches.

Apeks currently sit at a shockingly low 84th place in the world rankings. For Apeks, Fragadelphia is a chance for the new squad to build up their confidence and LAN experience as a unit. While they may be struggling in Europe, they will absolutely be the team to beat in Philadelphia.

BIG Academy: Improving on promising results

BIG Academy have been fairly consistent performers in the WePlay Academy League, securing top four finishes in every single WePlay event so far, even despite changes with the roster across all five seasons of the Academy League. The young German squad's most recent foray in the WePlay Academy League looked quite promising to start, with the team topping their group with a nearly unblemished 11-1 record. Once in the post-season, BIG Academy narrowly bested Spirit Academy, before falling to eventual champions fnatic Rising and Spirit Academy in a lower-brack rematch.

While the players on BIG Academy must certainly feel bad missing out on the Academy League trophy five times now, their consistent top-four finishes are absolutely nothing to sniff at, especially considering the fact that the squad had different lineups for each of these events. For BIG Academy, Fragadelphia represents not only a valuable opportunity to garner more LAN experience for a young squad, but a strong placing here could also provide the team with the tools they need to finally move on from third and fourth place finishes to hoisting the WePlay Academy League trophy.

7AM: Looking for experience

One shared experience between the Counter-Strike scenes of North America and the United Kingdom is a lack of organizational investment in the regions. The recent signing of the roster formerly known as SPADE by Benelux organization 7AM is a step towards countering this lack of support in the UK scene. 7AM have certainly selected a good choice to sign; the team is incredibly young, with the oldest player being only 20 years of age, with the team's average age hovering at 18.7 years old. While 7AM may not be at the top of the UK scene by any means, long-term investment in this group of youngsters could pay dividends down the road.

Things are not all roses and sunshine for this team, however. Recent outings for 7AM/Spade have seen the squad exit the UKIC Beyond Summer Invitational in 5-8th place, while also missing out on qualifying for the SteelSeries Nova Cup UK & Ireland Fall 2022, an event with a valuable BLAST Premier Qualifier spot up for grabs. 7AM's attendance at Fragadelphia highlights the value of organizational support, as the young team now have the ability to further improve as a unit while also building up their LAN chops, all thanks to the improved investment in their scene.

BLVKHVND: Incorporating a new addition

BLVKHVND were the first squad from outside of North America to announce their attendance for Fragadelphia 17. Compared to the previously mentioned 7AM, BLVKHVND are a bit closer to the top of the UK scene, but the team is still far from squads like Into the Breach and EKO. This is best exemplified in the team's outing in July at the LAN event EPIC36, in which BLVKHVND stumbled in the grand final against mix-team Emps Kids, seeing the favorite side finish in second place. This slip-up was enough to inspire changes in the roster, as the side opted to cut Tim "TIMMO" Musters in favor of Oliver "husky" Gollings.

Since the addition of husky, there have been some promising results, with the squad taking EKO to all three maps in the SteelSeries Nova Cup UK & Ireland Fall 2022, and keeping things close against Into the Breach in their match in the UKIC Beyond Summer Invitational. BLVKHVND's presence in Fragadelphia offers the team to chance to better integrate their new player, while also giving the squad the extra practice that they need to convert their close matches against the region's best into series wins.

These four squads, and many more, will begin their campaigns at Fragadelphia 17 in only a matter of days, with the Last Chance Qualifier beginning September 8th.