The Apex Legends Global Series provided its fans with news on the partnership program for Year Four today, which involves a dozen esports organizations working directly with Electronic Arts and Respawn to grow the community support for Apex’s biggest teams and competitive scene.
A blog post from the official Apex website has announced EA and Respawn’s partnership with 12 organizations across the ALGS. The teams in the Year Four partnership program include TSM, XSET, OpTic Gaming, FaZe, FURIA, DarkZero, LG Chivas, Moist Esports, and Disguised from North America, Alliance from EMEA, and Fnatic and Riddle from Asia Pacific North.
Partnered teams were chosen based on a variety of factors that included previous ALGS involvement, competitive performance, and a willingness to continue partnering with the ALGS to grow the global Apex community.
All partnered organizations for Year Four of the ALGS are being provided with a financial stipend to help establish a base for each roster’s competitive programs. Respawn will also directly work with the teams to build a fan base and establish community connections with multiple content opportunities. Plans include media training, dedicated days at LAN events for photoshoots and interviews, expanded team booths, and the ability to host officially licensed tournaments—a boon for orgs like TSM or FURIA, who have held multiple community tournaments over their four years in the scene.
“Our competitors and participating esports organizations are foundational to our success,” said John Nelson, senior director and commissioner of the ALGS. “We’re excited to innovate with our 12 partner teams to find new paths to prosperity. We also remain committed to working with all invested organizations around the world to build a sustainable ecosystem and deliver amazing experiences to our fans.”
Despite the fan base’s initial worries for the future of the Pro League, the partnership program announcement shows that EA and Respawn are fully committed to the ALGS. The financial support for each partnered team serves as a direct answer to one of the biggest problems in past years of the competition, where orgs including Team Liquid, Cloud9, and most recently 100 Thieves all cited financial instability in the Apex scene as a main reason for dropping their rosters.
“We are grateful for all of the support we have received from EA and the community since re-joining the Apex scene last year and are very proud of the success our Japanese lineup has achieved thus far,” said Patrik Sattermon, chief gaming officer and co-founder of Fnatic. “This is a significant step toward long-term sustainability for Fnatic in Apex Legends.”
The partnered team announcement also sees the return of popular organization Disguised, who initially entered the scene with the 2023 Championship but dropped its roster afterward. “When I tuned into the ALGS Championship a few months ago, I started to get very invested in the games, the players, and the scene in general,” said Jeremy “Disguised Toast” Wang, CEO and founder of Disguised. “It’s an esport I can see us being in for a long time with the support of EA, and I’m excited to have Disguised as a partnered team for 2024.”
Year Four of the ALGS has already begun with the Preseason Qualifiers running from Nov. 25 to Dec. 18 to determine the last eight teams for each region’s Pro League before Split One’s start on Jan. 20, 2024, for all regions.
