| Aurora Gaming | |
| Short Name: | Aurora |
| Founded: | 2022 |
| Main Sponsor: | 1xBet |
| Location: | Serbia |
| Colors: | Cyan, black[1] |
| Sport Label: | Divisions |
Aurora Gaming, or simply Aurora (stylized in all caps), is a Serbian esports organization. Founded in 2022, the org currently fields professional rosters in Apex Legends, Counter-Strike 2 (CS2), Dota 2, and competitions.
Aurora Gaming was founded in 2022 in Serbia.[2] Their main sponsor/partner is 1xBet.[3] In November 2023, their CS2 roster appeared in an ad campaign with Russian adult film actress Eva Elfie; the ad received criticism, with some fans calling it "misogynistic".[4] 1xBet is one of both Aurora's and Elfie's main sponsors.[4]
A Serbian org, Aurora competes in the EMEA region for the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) competition.
Aurora played with an all-Russian squad to being the 2022–23 (ALGS Year 3) season, with the players previously completing on Team Empire roster, from which they were dropped when Team Empire left competitive Apex in August 2022.[5] On 4 November, Aurora signed the roster consisting of "RANCHES", "cleaveee", and "Maliwan".[6]
In EMEA play, Aurora was dominant during Split 1, winning the region.[7] This qualified them for the Split 1 playoffs, but they encountered visa issues which marred Aurora all season.[8] [7] These visa issues rendered them unable to play in the ALGS Split 1 Playoffs, held in London.[9]
During the ALGS Split 2 Pro League, Aurora had a middling performance and Alexey "Mailwan" Rusinov stepped down from the active roster, with Danila "Sunset" Soloviov filling the vacant roster spot.[7] Their performance improved and they were able to qualify for the Split 2 Playoffs as the EMEA region's ninth seed.[7] However, visa issues further complicated Aurora's competitive efforts, as Sunset was forced to miss the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs.[7] Maliwan returned and filled-in for Sunset during the competition.[10] In the 2023 ALGS Split 2 Playoffs, they selected drop spots alongside other teams on both the Storm Point and World's Edge maps.[11] [12] After a 31st-place finish in the Split 2 Playoffs, Aurora disbanded the roster in August.[13] [14]
Later in the month, Aurora would re-enter Apex competition, signing the then free agent Fire Beavers roster.[13] [15] This team consisted of Kiryl "9impulse" Kostsiu, Lev "taskmast33r" Grigoriev, and Syvatoslav "ojrein" Korochinsky, with the former playing as the team's captain.[16] They qualified for the 2023 ALGS Championship, held in Birmingham.[9] However, visa issues once again came into play, with Jose "Uxako" Llosa and Keenan "Tax" Mackey, serving as substitutes for Aurora.[16] Ultimately, 9impulse received his visa, though taskmast33r was denied entry to the U.K.[17] [18] They instead began the tournament with "Uxako" playing the third spot on their roster.[9] Internal team disagreements with Uxako occurred and after the group stage, Aurora attempted to make a swap to Tax.[18] However, ALGS officials denied Aurora's roster swap.[17] As Uxako was registered as a starting player for Aurora in the tournament, a swap to a sub was only allowed in a case such as illness.[17] 9impulse and ojrein would finish the tournament playing as a duo, and Aurora finished the Championship in a disappointing 36th-place.[18]
In December, Aurora benched taskmast33r.[9] Konstantin "Hardecki" Kozlov would complete the Aurora roster as their third player.[19] During EMEA regional play in the Split 1 Pro League, the team performed well, securing a spot in the Split 1 Playoffs.[20] In March 2024, 9impulse requested Apex Legends publisher Electronic Arts (EA) to send out official invites to the 2024 ALGS Split 1 Playoffs LAN location, in order for players to be proactive in applying for travel visas.[21] Other pro players spoke up in solidarity of 9impulse.[21]
Heading into the 2024 ALGS Split 1 Playoffs, Hadley Vincent of Dot Esports wrote that "Aurora is known by most as a wildcard team", and cited professional player "Zer0" of DarkZero concurring with that assessment.[22] They are also known as an aggressive team, with their play notably unorthodox in relation to the game's meta.[22] [19]
Aurora Gaming also fields rosters in Counter-Strike 2 (CS2) and Dota 2.[23] Aurora's CS2 roster won the Skyesports Masters 2024 tournament, defeating OG by a score of 3–1.[24] [25] The win clinched a berth in the Skyesports Championship 2024 tournament.[24]
On 13 November 2023, Aurora signed the former Talon Esports roster, the strongest in the Southeast Asia (SEA) region, after Talon and the roster mutually agreed to part ways.[26] [27] The roster consisted of Nuengnara "23savage" Teeramahanon, Armel "Armel" Tabios, Anucha "Jabz" Jirawong, Worawit "Q" Mekchai, and Chan "Oli" Chon Kien.[26] In March 2024, Armel was benched.[28] Aurora shortly thereafter announced Artem "Lorenof" Melnik as their new mid laner.
On July 27, 2024, Aurora Gaming finally unveiled their official roster for the upcoming MPL Philippines Season 14 at PARQAL, Aseana City, Parañaque.
The playing roster comprises Edfel "Fel" Jay, Louise "Louise" Martin Mahilum, Keith Sheldon Spencer "Keyesis" Lago, Darylle "Ward" Dela Cruz, and Saiden "Saiden" Abdul. Meanwhile, the coaching team would be composed of Ronjell "Hatred", RC "Shura" Perandos, and Robert "Einn" Magsaysay.