A broadcast of preseason qualifiers for the top tier of the North American Apex Legends circuit is scheduled for later today. Several prominent streamers and pros, like Jack “NiceWigg” Martin and Timmy “iiTzTimmy” An, will look to earn their place in the Apex Pro League with a win.
The competition in North America’s final rounds of qualifying begins at 8pm CT. It will be streamed by GameTime, as well as by many of the players on their own Twitch channels. GameTime’s stream will feature commentary from casters Josh Howard and Rafael “DiA” Ruiz.
Today’s competition marks the end of the second of four preseason qualifiers for the Apex teams that weren’t lucky enough to receive an invite to the pro league of the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS). These preseason qualifiers, played out over four tournaments before the start of the ALGS regular season, will determine which teams will round out the pro league lobbies.
The winners of the qualifiers in each region gain automatic entry into the pro league, where they’ll play for their share of the $5 million ALGS prize pool. Sixteen other teams that didn’t notch a win in the qualifiers will still make the cut for the pro league based on strong performances throughout the four preseason tournaments, while the rest of the pool will be relegated to the second-tier Challengers circuit.
There were some notable snubs among the invites to the Apex Pro League in North America. Five-time ALGS winner Ryan “ImMadness” Schlieve, who was recently let go from CLG, didn’t receive an invite, for example. His new squad, known as BenchWarmers, had an easy time of it in the beginning rounds of the qualifiers but struggled later this weekend as the competition grew more fierce. The team, rounded out by XSET’s Beau “RamBeau” Sheidy and Cloud9’s Logan “Knoqd” Layou, barely squeaked into the finals. Only 10 teams advanced from the semifinals and they came in 10th place.
NiceWigg, another ex-CLG player, has qualified for the finals with his teammates iiTzTimmy and Apryze. Both NiceWigg and iiTzTimmy are prominent content creators in the Apex scene with over 1.5 million Twitch followers between them. But this is a new, untested team and the qualifying lobbies haven’t been a walk in the park.
Both teams will look to win tonight’s finals outright, which would give them a bye through the rest of the qualifiers and cement their place in the pro league regular season, which begins on Oct. 16.
