Respawn and EA have announced the official dates for the ALGS Championship, Apex Legends’ flagship tournament. The competition will boast a million-dollar prize pool, the biggest in the esport’s history.
The ALGS Championship Last Chance Qualifier will take place from April 23 – April 25. The ALGS Championship will begin on May 22 and carry on through June 13. The two-week period will include group stages and finals for each of the five regions. That’s two weeks of competitive Apex Legends to look forward to this summer, as well as an action-packed LCQ in April.
ALGS Commissioner John Nelson tells The Loadout that the Championship will be an online event like the rest of the series has been. Teams will continue to compete in their respective regions and will not face teams from across the world, in order to eliminate server and ping issues as much as possible. The regions will be the same that have been competing throughout the ALGS so far: North America, South America, EMEA, APAC North, and APAC South.
“Live events are still not something that we’re prepared to return to,” says Nelson. “And so our Championship will be five Regional Championships in the regions that players have grown accustomed to competing in.”
The Regional Championships system puts a lid on rumours that the ALGS was considering hosting a LAN event in Japan for its million-dollar tournament. However, Nelson says he is keen to return to live events when it’s possible.
“As soon as it’s safe to come back together, we will do that,” he says. “And I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to that – to be back in the same room with everyone. And I think it’s going to be an amazing party for all of us.”
As it stands, the ALGS Championship will still be a huge celebration of all things Apex – just remotely. “The Championship itself will be, depending on region, either 30 or 40-team competitions within those regions. So an exclusive group of the best teams from the Winter Circuit and over the course of the Apex Legends Global Series, competing for that title.”
North America and EMEA will have 40-team tournaments, whereas South America, APAC North, and APAC South will host 30-team competitions. The tournament will start with a group stage, where teams are sorted into groups of ten – four groups for the larger regions, and three for the smaller ones. These groups will all play each other once, and the top 20 teams based on ALGS points will go through to the Championship Finals, which will use ALGS’ tried-and-tested Match Point format.
By our reckoning, that’s six games in the group stages for teams in North America and EMEA, and three games for teams competing in South America, APAC North, and APAC South.
You can check out the full details, including the tournament schedule and prize pool distribution, in the latest ALGS blog post.
EA’s head of broadcast, Joe Lynch, also tells The Loadout that the team is in the process of finalising plans for the Championship broadcast, but it won’t be playing things safe. “We’re going to keep taking risks, and we’re going to keep taking chances,” he says, explaining that it’s in the team’s nature to keep trying to push the boundaries of esports broadcasting. As we’ve seen over the course of the Winter Circuit, the broadcast team is not averse to trying new things, but no plans are confirmed as of yet.
You’ll be able to read The Loadout’s full interviews with John Nelson and Joe Lynch over the coming weeks.