The ALGS Championship will bring the top 40 teams from around the world to compete for bragging rights and a lion's share of a US$2 million prize pool.
We are just hours away from the Apex Legends Global Series: Championship that will see the top 40 teams from five different regions compete to be the best in the world. The ALGS Split 2 Playoffs took place more than a month ago in Stockholm, Sweden and saw the likes of Reignite (now known as DarkZero Esports) from the APAC South region that took home the gold.
The ALGS Championship will be held in the United States with the PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina playing host. It will be happening from July 7 - 10 with four days of Apex Legends carnage. The top 40 teams will not only be fighting for bragging rights at being the best in the business but also for a total prize pool of two million USD.
ALGS Championship - Schedule & Format
Day one will take place on Thursday, July 7 and will be dedicated solely to the group stage games where 40 teams will be split into four groups of 10. Each group will play one another in a six-game series to total out to 18 games played for every team. The 10 teams with the highest group stage score will move on directly to the second round of the upper bracket. The next 20 teams in the middle of the table will be sent to the first round of the upper bracket whilst the bottom 10 teams will head straight to the first round of the lower bracket.
Days two and three will fall on Friday and Saturday, July 8 and 9 and is for the first-round matches of the upper and lower bracket. Both brackets will have to play an eight-game series twice to determine who will head to the final stage. For the first round of the upper bracket, the 20 teams that finished in the middle of the standings during the group stage will have to battle it out to determine the top 10 that will be heading to the second round whilst the bottom 10 will be sent to the first round of the lower bracket.
The second round of the upper bracket will feature the 10 best performing teams during the group stage as well as the top 10 from the first round. This will determine the final 10 that will be going through to the final stage whole receiving advanced starting points. As for the bottom 10 teams, they will fall to the second round of the lower bracket.
Heading to the first round of the lower bracket, it will consist mainly of the bottom 10 teams during the group stage and the other bottom 10 from the upper bracket round one. At the end of this round, the top 10 will be moving on to the second round of the lower bracket while the bottom 10 will be eliminated from the ALGS world championship. The second and final lower bracket match-up will feature the top 10 from the previous round as well as the bottom 10 teams from the second round of the winner bracket. This is to determine which are the last 10 teams that will be heading to the finals and the other 10 will be going home as well.
The finals will take place on Sunday, July 10 and the match-point system will be in place much like the Split 2 Playoffs a few months back. This means that teams can only win after reaching the minimum points threshold of 50 first. With this ruling, teams must get 50 points or more before being considered match-point eligible, which will make for intense viewing especially when multiple teams are on match-point. Teams that made it through the second round of the upper bracket will also start with advanced points with the top-seeded squad getting 10, the second-placed getting nine, and so on.
ALGS Championship - Participating Teams
The top 30 teams that finished the Split 2 Playoffs will be part of the championship round-up with a further 10 coming from the last chance qualifiers. With that, there will be a total of 40 teams participating for the lion's share of the two million dollar USD prize pool. With the 40 teams already sorted into the four groups of 10, there are some outliers within each group that many will speculate to make it into the top 10. Here is how the groups look:
Group A
- DarkZero Esports (APAC-S)
- esports team aD (APAC-N)
- Team Empire (EMEA)*
- 100 Thieves (NA)
- Acend (EMEA)
- Fennel (APAC-N)
- Spacestation Gaming (NA)
- Crazy Raccoon (APAC-N)
- Lightning Unicorn (APAC-S)
- Zeta Divison (EMEA)
Group B
- Team Unite (APAC-N)
- Luminosity Gaming (NA)
- Cloud9 (NA)
- GMT Esports (EMEA)
- Team Singularity (SA)
- Oddik (SA)
- Element 6 (EMEA)
- Fenix Team (SA)
- Furia Esports (NA)
- Elev8 Entertainment (NA)
Group C
- Team Liquid (NA)
- NRG (NA)
- Fnatic (APAC-S)
- Godfire (SA)
- Sutoraiku (APAC-S)
- FA Kitties (EMEA)
- Reject (APAC-N)
- Suave (SA)
- Scarz (EMEA)
- EXO Clan (APAC-S)
Group D
- OpTic Gaming (NA)
- TSM (NA)
- Alliance (EMEA)
- Team Burger (APAC-S)
- DreamFire (APAC-S)
- Detonation Gaming (APAC-N)
- FOR7 (APAC-N)
- Invictus Gaming International (EMEA)
- 1iQ (SA)
- Orthros Fang (APAC-N)
*Unfortunately, Team Empire will not be participating in this year's LAN after the team failed to obtain their visas in time for the LAN. As of right now, neither Respawn Entertainment nor EA has come out with a statement on which team will be replacing Empire at the LAN.
ALGS Championship - Prize Money
With two million dollars USD on the line, you can imagine that this will be the biggest tournament of many teams' lives in the ALGS. The team that claims the world championship will go home with a massive US$500,000 with the second-placed team taking home US$300,000 and the third-placed team receiving US$200,000. What makes the ALGS Championship beneficial is that every team will still walk away with a share of the overall prize pool. Here is what the payout will look like for all 40 teams:
- 1st: US$500,000
- 2nd: US$300,000
- 3rd: US$200,000
- 4th: US$160,000
- 5th: US$120,000
- 6th: US$90,000
- 7th: US$72,000
- 8th: US$60,000
- 9th: US$48,000
- 10th: US$36,000
- 11th - 15th: US$24,000
- 16th - 20th: US$18,000
- 21st - 25th: US$12,000
- 26th - 30th: US$10,200
- 31st - 40th: US$9,000
ALGS Championship - Teams to watch out for
With 40 teams to pay attention to, it can be quite daunting as to which team to focus on over the next four days of the ALGS Championship. There are plenty of big names participating in the ALGS Championship alongside some new teams as well from the vastly smaller regions. With that said, we'll be picking the top three teams from each group that we think will have an impact on the upcoming ALGS Championship.
Group A
DarkZero Esports - After a decisive victory at the Split 2 Playoffs, the team hailing from Australia will be hoping to make it two LAN wins in a row. Their decision-making and map rotations have been on-point for the most part while also relying on individual brilliance from its players, like Noyan "Genburten' Ozkose who is seen as one of the best controller players in Apex Legends.
esports team aD - The South Korean squad has been one of the more consistent teams from the APAC region and they will be looking to step their game up in the coming days. They are one of the northern APAC's strongest teams and will be looking to put the Asia-Pacific region on the map this time around.
100 Thieves - While the organisation itself is humongous in North America, their Apex Legends division hasn't had that much success on the international stage so far. Still seen as one of NA's top teams, 100 Thieves will be heading to the LAN with a point to prove, especially after their strong performances during the Split 2 Playoffs.
Group B
Team UNITE - Hailing from Japan, Team UNITE has put the entire nation on its back as one of the top competitors in Apex Legends. They were the third team to claim match point in the grand finals during the Split 2 Playoffs and have backed up their placing with consistent performances throughout the tournament. Team UNITE is surely one to look out for with their unorthodox playstyle and composition, which will surely cause plenty of chaos and confusion in the process.
Luminosity Gaming - While the team has had some roster changes due to two members failing to obtain their visas on time, Luminosity is coming into the ALGS Championship as one of the underdogs. Loaning two players from Complexity Gaming, it will be interesting to see just how far Luminosity can go in the tournament with two-thirds of the original squad missing.
Furia Esports - Coming from the North American last chance qualifiers, the Brazilian-owned organisation features an all-American line-up that can be seen as a dark horse in the tournament. After recently picking up Jacob "HisWattson" McMillin, Furia breezed through the NA-LCQ with ease. It also helps that HisWattson was the top-ranked predator in Season 13.
Group C
Team Liquid - Many were expecting big things from Team Liquid during their performances in the Split 2 Playoffs. They were consistently in the top three of all stages in the last LAN and will be hoping to go one step further this time. The three members of Liquid have great cohesion with one another with inch-perfect coordination when it came to pushing and rotations.
NRG - Another big name hailing from NA is NRG, which has been a staple in ALGS for quite some time now. However, the team has since reached new heights after acquiring the likes of Chris "sweetdreams" Sexton as the in-game leader. His IGL shot-calling has come second to none in NRG's resurgence back to the top of the ALGS and NRG has looked like a more solid and well-rounded team because of it.
SCARZ - Another last chance qualifier winner from the EMEA region, SCARZ is back with a point to prove. After finishing dead last at the Split 2 Playoffs, the team had to slog through the LCQ matches to finish first in EMEA to gain a coveted spot back into the ALGS Championship. While many aren't expecting SCARZ to pull through once more, it could very well be different this time as they did look solid throughout the LCQ.
Group D
OpTic Gaming - After finishing just outside the top three at the Split 2 Playoffs, OpTic Gaming will be out for blood at the ALGS Championship. The team has been seen as one of NA's best-performing squads so far after thrilling matches in both the regional leagues as well as during the LAN earlier this year. OG has the creativity and skill to win the entire tournament; they just have to be able to clutch it when it matters most.
TSM - Some see TSM as arguably the best Apex Legends team to ever grace the game. Of course, they are the first and only team so far to win the first two LANs in the competitive scene. Being one of NA's best teams, TSM has a lot to live up to with a mountain of expectations as well as an even bigger mountain of supporters behind them. With their IGL Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen at the helm, can he lead TSM to a third LAN victory and their first world championship?
Alliance - Alliance is another noteworthy name in the EMEA scene as one of the stronger teams from the region. While a top 20 finish at the Split 2 Playoffs secured their slot to the ALGS Championship, they will have to do more than just that to be able to go further. John "Hakis" Håkansson has been the team's IGL since he joined and will need to step up his game as well as his teammates during the LAN.
The ALGS Championship will be taking place in a week from July 7 - 10. Be sure to catch it all live on Twitch.TV!