How do you get into ALGS?

Year three of the Apex Legends Global Series is just around the corner, and players finally have a roadmap for what the next season of the biggest Apex competition looks like. Along the way, there’s $5 million in total prizing to be awarded to teams that do well in the season’s LANs and Pro Leagues.

With cash and the right to be called the best Apex players on the planet, you might ask yourself just how all these teams get into the ALGS and start competing for prizes.

While many of the teams that compete in the ALGS have been doing so since the beginning of the competition, there are some teams and players that start up and get noticed, seemingly overnight. Such was the case for players like Verhulst, who went from being virtually unknown prior to the start of the last season of ALGS to joining TSM and competing around the world.

So, want to know how all of this ALGS stuff works? Here’s how teams qualify for the tournament series.

How teams qualify for ALGS

First things first: all players must meet the minimum requirements for ALGS, and then register their teams in order to have a shot at playing at the highest level. For the third season of ALGS, players must have achieved a rank of Silver IV and be playing on PC via Steam in order to be eligible to play. No console players will be allowed in the third year of ALGS. If you meet those requirements, you can register your team on EA’s website.

From there, teams will want to get into their respective regions’ Pro League. The Pro League is essentially the “regular season” play for ALGS, and top finishers in Pro Leagues around the world get invited to international LANs, where the biggest prize pools await. There are two ways to get into Pro League for the beginning of the ALGS season: be an invited team or qualify through Preseason Qualifiers.

Invited teams include the best teams from the previous year of ALGS play. Understandably, those teams don’t need to go through qualifiers and are automatically included in Pro League play.

The Preseason Qualifiers, on the other hand, are open to any team that meets the aforementioned eligibility requirements and registers their teams for the tournaments. The Preseason Qualifiers are four tournaments, held each weekend between Oct. 8 and Oct. 31. The winning team in each of these individual tournaments will qualify for Pro League. In addition, teams will accumulate points based on their finishes in the tournaments even if they do not win, and the top four teams based on cumulative points that do not win any of the four Preseason Qualifier Tournaments will receive the final four spots in Pro League.

Can you get into ALGS if you don’t qualify for Pro League? 

The ALGS also has a Challenger Circuit competition, which is a step below Pro League. The Challenger Circuit is a series of open registration tournaments, similar to the Preseason Qualifiers. Any team can register for the Challenger Circuit.

At the end of the first ALGS split, the winners of each of the Challenger Circuit tournaments, as well as the top 16 teams based on cumulative points that do not win a Challenger Circuit tournament, will qualify for the Pro League Split Two qualifier. In this qualifier, the top Challenger Circuit teams will go up against the lowest-performing Pro League teams, with spots in the next split’s Pro League up for grabs.

Another Challenger Circuit runs in the second split, with spots in the Last Chance Qualifier for the ALGS Championship on the line, instead of Pro League. This way, any team can theoretically register for ALGS and make it to the highest level of play.