The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) is a worldwide esports competition for the video game Apex Legends, organized by Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment. The series uses a system where teams can move up or down in rankings based on their performance each season, ending with the ALGS Championship. The ALGS was announced in 2019, and its first season took place during 2020–21.
Format
As of the 2021–22 season, the ALGS season format includes three phases: Split One, Split Two, and the ALGS Championship. Each split has a regular season called the Pro League and a playoffs stage.
Each split features a Pro League regular season in each of five regions: North America, EMEA, APAC South, APAC North, and South America. In every region, 40 teams compete in the Pro League. These teams are selected through online qualifiers and direct invitations based on previous performance. From each region’s Pro League, 40 teams advance to the split playoffs. After Split Two playoffs end, the top teams from the playoffs, along with teams that qualify through "Last Chance Qualifier tournaments," move on to the ALGS Championship match.
History
In December 2019, Electronic Arts (EA) and Respawn Entertainment announced the first Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS). The series included 22 events divided into four phases, with each phase ending in a Major Event, the highest-level competition of the season. The final Major Event of the season, called the Apex Legends Global Series Championship, decided the season’s winner. The first event of the season began in January 2020. The first online qualifiers had problems with game crashes that disconnected players from the server and bugs in the game itself. On March 6, the first Major Event was postponed indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic. On March 31, the season moved completely online and introduced new tournament formats. The ALGS Championship was split into five separate matches by region: North America (NA), South America (SA), Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA), Asia-Pacific North (APAC North), and Asia-Pacific South (APAC South). The prize pool for the ALGS Championship was US$2.58 million, with $1 million from EA and the rest from sales of limited edition in-game skins. The ALGS Championship began on June 1, and the five regional champions were Kungarna NA (North America), Paradox Esports (South America), Scarz Europe (EMEA), Fennel Korea (APAC North), and Wolfpack Arctic (APAC South).
For the second season of ALGS, the total prize pool increased to $5 million. EA and Respawn changed the series format and allowed Xbox and PlayStation players to compete. Viewership for the second season started slowly, with less than 10,000 viewers on average in North America and EMEA during the regular season of the first split. The Split One Playoffs saw a large increase in viewership, reaching over 300,000 viewers at its peak and averaging 55,000—nearly the same as the first season’s ALGS Championship. The Split Two Playoffs on May 1, 2022, had an average minute audience of over 539,000 and 10.3 million total hours watched, breaking viewership records across all EA titles. The ALGS Championship was held at the PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, from July 7–10. Unlike the previous season, there was only one championship match with teams from all regions competing. The event had a $2 million prize pool and marked the first time the ALGS held a live-audience event. Australian team DarkZero Esports won the second season.
For the third season, the prize pool remained at $5 million. The online regular season for Split 1 of the ALGS Year 3 Pro League began on November 6, 2022. Although Split 1 had 30% fewer viewers than the previous season, it reached over 500,000 viewers during the playoffs across multiple channels on Twitch.tv and YouTube. This Split was held at the Copper Box Arena in London and introduced a new fast-paced format for the finals called Match Point. In this format, a team can only win the championship after earning 50 points and winning a game. Team SoloMid (TSM) won the Split 1 Playoffs and received $300,000, with their in-game leader, ImperialHal, winning MVP of the tournament.
The ALGS Year 4 Pro League North American Regional Finals were postponed after several competitors faced hacking incidents where they were given cheats mid-match, including auto-aim and revealing the location of every player. Easy Anti-Cheat, the anti-cheat software used for Apex Legends, stated on March 18 that they believed the issue did not come from a vulnerability in their software.
After the Year 4 Split 2 LAN tournament, EA announced the "BLGS," a series of online open tournaments held between the Split 2 LAN and the season’s ALGS Championship.
The ALGS Championship was held in February 2025 at the Daiwa House Premist Dome in Sapporo, Japan. The Greek esports organization GoNext won the championship LAN, its core formerly part of 2R1C and Blacklist International.
ALGS Year 5 was the first season to introduce a Legend BAN system, where all legends were available at the start of a series, and after each match, the most used legend was removed from the pool for the rest of the series. A Point-of-Interest (POI) drafting system was also added. North America and South America were combined into a single Americas region, and it was announced there would be no Split 2 Playoffs LAN for Year 5.
ALGS Year 5 had a schedule change to include a new ALGS Open featuring 160 teams, a $1 million prize pool, no group stage, and a double-elimination format. The 2025 ALGS Open was held at the Morial Convention Center in New Orleans, Louisiana, from May 1–4, 2025, and won by Team Falcons.
Following the start of Split 1, the Midseason Playoffs were announced as part of the 2025 Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with a $2 million prize pool. The announcement caused controversy due to concerns about human rights abuses by the Saudi monarchy, leading to accusations of sportswashing and at least one player boycotting the tournament. The Chinese esports organization VK Gaming won the 2025 ALGS Midseason Playoffs.
The ALGS Year 5 Championship was held again at the Sapporo Dome in Sapporo, Japan, from January 15–18, 2026. Oblivion, an unsigned team, won the championship for the first time in ALGS history. Additionally, the team’s coach became the first woman to win an ALGS Championship.
The ALGS Year 6 Championship is scheduled to take place at the same location in 2027.