Esports is often the best advertisement for a competitive game, and the same is true for Apex Legends. EA and Respawn first revealed the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) in 2019, a move that expanded its competitive scene and sought to create a stable esports structure for the battle royale.
The ALGS has undergone some format and scheduling changes over the past couple of years and has grown to incorporate leagues in multiple regions, as well as make a return to LAN events after much time spent in online formats.
Here’s everything you need to know about the ALGS and its tournament structure.
What is the ALGS?
The ALGS is the premier international competition in Apex. While third-party tournaments take place as well, the EA-backed tournament series is known for the best play and the biggest prize pools, making it the prime focus for top players around the world.
Each season of the ALGS is divided into splits, in which each region competes in online leagues for a chance to qualify for LAN playoff events. At the end of the season, the best teams from the season’s LANs and those that qualify through Last Chance Qualifiers (LCQ) are entered into the ALGS Championship. LAN events have prize pools in the millions of dollars, and serious prestige is tied to winning any ALGS event.
ALGS Year Three format
The ALGS season is broken up into several parts: Pro League, Split Playoffs, LCQ, and the seasonal Championship. Running concurrently with the Pro League is the Challenger Circuit, a tier-two competition that feeds teams into the Pro League through qualifying tournaments.
Pro League
The ALGS Pro League is what is considered the “regular season” games for the best teams in the world. There are Pro Leagues in every region (North America, South America, EMEA, APAC North, and APAC South) containing 30 teams. Each team is placed in a group within their region, and the Pro Leagues compete in round-robin play online for several weeks. Finishing well in a Pro League matchday moves you up the Pro League leaderboard, while placing poorly will cause teams to fall behind.
Pro League has two splits, and the best teams at the end of those splits advance to the split playoffs. The split playoffs are LAN events featuring teams from every region. The worst teams at the end of the Pro League split must fight for their Pro League spot in Pro League qualifiers and the Last Chance Qualifier.
Split Playoffs
These LAN events are essentially majors, where teams from across the world travel to a location to compete against each other in person. Teams that qualify for split playoffs will earn Playoff Points depending on where they finish in the split playoffs. Playoff Points are used to determine automatic qualifiers for the ALGS Championship at the end of the year.
Challenger Circuit and Pro League Qualifiers
The Challenger Circuit runs concurrently with Pro League. At the end of the first Pro League split, the bottom teams in the Pro League and the top teams in the Challenger Circuit compete against each other in a qualifying tournament, with the best teams in the tournament qualifying for the Pro League in the next split. In the second split, the best Challenger Circuit squads are entered into the LCQ, through which teams that haven’t placed in any split playoffs can still qualify for the ALGS Championship.
ALGS Championship
The ALGS Championship is the biggest event of the year, and all of the season funnels into it. Ultimately, every team wants to qualify for the ALGS Championship, but only a few dozen teams will.
ALGS Year Three schedule
- Preseason Qualifier One: Oct. 8 to 10
- Preseason Qualifier Two: Oct. 15 to 17
- Preseason Qualifier Three: Oct. 22 to 24
- Preseason Qualifier Four: Oct. 29 to 31
- Pro League Split One: November to December 2022
- Challenger Circuit Split One: November 2022 to Janurary 2023
- Split One Playoffs: Winter 2023
- Pro League Qualifier: January 2023
- Pro League Split Two: March to April 2023
- Challenger Circuit Split Two: March to May 2023
- Split Two Playoffs: Spring 2023
- Last Chance Qualifier: June 2023
- ALGS Championship: Summer 2023
