The second year of ALGS will conclude this weekend in Raleigh, North Carolina. The worlds top 40 teams will go head to head across 4 days in the ALGS Championship.
The teams are competing for a share of $2 million, the largest prize pool in Apex Legends history.
This is the first event since the start of the pandemic that there will be a live audience, creating a unique environment and additional pressure. While plenty of players competing in Raleigh have played in front of live audiences before, there are a significant amount that haven’t. How they deal with this additional element could define their ALGS Championship.
Format
The ALGS Championship is spread across 4 days. It culminates in match point finals on Sunday. The event has been lengthened by a day since the Sweden playoffs. This should reduce the huge burden on players in the early stages.
Thursday (7th) – Group Stage (1pm EST / 6pm BST)Friday (8th) – Group Stage + Bracket Stage (1pm EST / 6pm BST)Saturday (9th) – Bracket Stage (1pm EST / 6pm BST)Sunday (10th) – Finals (5pm EST / 10pm BST)
ALGS Championship Format Explained
The 40 teams are split into 4 groups of 10 teams.In the group stage, each group plays each other once. They play 6 games per round. The overall top 20 teams move to a winner’s bracket, and the bottom 20 head to the loser’s bracket.In the loser’s bracket, the bottom 10 teams are eliminated. The top 10 teams advance to the losers bracket round 2.The top 10 teams in the winner’s bracket advance to the finals. Teams that advance earn seeding points for the final rounds. The bottom 10 teams head to loser’s bracket round 2. Finally the top 10 from losers bracket round 2 also get to the finals.
This means that teams could have two chances to make finals, and teams who perform poorly in the group stage still have the opportunity to qualify for finals. This creates extra excitement and means that teams don’t play meaningless matches at any point.
ALGS Championship: Teams to watch
DarkZero
DarkZero recently picked up the former Reignite roster. They won the ALGS Split 2 LAN playoffs, even without star player Genburten.
DarkZero will be keen to follow that up with a second victory, and Genburten will be determined to show that he can perform on the big stage having missed out. After the ALGS Championship the DarkZero team are staying in North America, and will compete in this region going forward.
NRG
NRG underperformed by NRG standards in the last playoffs, finishing 7th. They struggled in the group stages and dropped into the losers bracket. This denied them valuable seeding points.
Led by a top IGL in Sweetdreams, NRG will be aiming to take home the ALGS Championship in Raleigh this weekend, the experience at Sweden should stand them in better stead. In particular for Rocker, Sweden was his first LAN and the additional experience will only improve his performance this time around.
TSM
TSM are always ones to watch in any tournament. They have the ability to blow teams away, but they sometimes lack consistency. In the online NA Split 1 playoffs TSM were roundly written off, poor performances had fans and commentators playing down their chances, they then went on to win.
ImperialHal and Reps have some of the best LAN CVs in Apex Legends. Notably, TSM have been performing strongly in scrims and they’ve been widely experimenting with off meta legends. It is expected to see TSM use Seer on Storm Point at the ALGS Championship – Seer has been a very rare pick in both Pro League and Playoffs all year.
OpTic
OpTic performed strongly in Sweden, finishing 4th. They were under extreme pressure with their signing being announced just before the event. They arguably are the best team in North America this year, under their old ESA banner they broke records in the second split of Pro League. It was this level of performance that saw them win the second split of the NA Pro League and land themselves a huge transfer to OpTic Gaming when their Esports Arena contract expired.
iG
iG International had very forgetful time in Sweden. They finished 31st and performed very poorly, especially compared to their very strong performance in the Split 1 playoffs. Luckily, their 4th place in that tournament banked them enough ‘playoff points’ to qualify for this event without dropping into the LCQ.
They have since dropped Urban, who was a surprising replacement for Blasts. iG replaced Urban with Sweden super-sub JMW who stood in for Genburten after he contracted COVID and was disqualified. This has revitalised them and experimenting with methodical zone gameplay and compositions has helped them regain their identity and confidence. They could be one of the first teams to debut Newcastle in ALGS this week.
Scarz
SCARZ were another team affected by COVID, losing gentle giant Mande just before the event. They arrive in Raleigh having won the EMEA Online ALGS Championship in 2021. However, unlike Reignite, they were not able to perform anywhere near their best with a sub and they finished dead last in 40th. A trip through the LCQ was required to earn their place at this event.
SCARZ are not used to performing so poorly, and even without Mande 40th place was disappointing. The long time team will arrive here determined to prove their worth and get back to winning ways.
FNATIC (BAKAGAKI)
When FNATIC re-join Apex Legends, you have to sit up and take notice of who they pick up. They have opted to sign all Japanese team BAKAGAKI. FNATU competed in Sweden under GameWith, and finished a very respectable 9th.
They achieved 3rd in the Split 2 Pro League in a very competitive APAC North region. Fans from EMEA and NA might not really know much about this new FNATIC roster, but by Sunday evening (July 10th) they might just be watching them lift the ALGS Championship Trophy.
Team Liquid
Team Liquid surprised everyone with their level in Sweden. They were on top form and consistently performed incredibly strongly. They took 2nd place overall and have to be considered among the favourites to go one better.
One of the driving factors behind their uptick has been the outstanding fragging ability that Gildersons provides. If they can find the same rhythm and consistency they had in Sweden Team Liquid are a major contender this weekend. The only question is, how many teams have studied their performance in Sweden and set up plans to counter it?
Notable teams and players missing ALGS Championship
EA has controversially kept the strict COVID-19 rules from Sweden. This means that any player testing positive for Covid is disqualified, there are no isolation booths. Teams are allowed a COVID sub, which has seen players like Reptar, Rogue and others fly into Raleigh to be on standby.
Further to the COVID issues, teams have also been affected by Visa problems, with the US being difficult to enter at short notice from many countries.
Some of the most notable absentees are (as of publication):
Team Empire (VISA issues)E6_Naghz (VISA issues)Max Strafe (Ukraine Resident)YanYA & Neazul of Luminosity (VISA issues)ojrein (unconfirmed)Jinqs (COVID-19)
How to watch the ALGS Championship
The ALGS Championship will be streamed on twitch.tv with Multiview and Twitch Drops once again available. There is also a B Stream ran by NiceWigg and Greek.
There are also still tickets available for the ALGS Championship, which is held at the PNC Arena, Raleigh. You can find the last remaining tickets on Ticketmaster here.
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