Year 4 ALGS was bigger than ever, but Apex Legends is not looking to slow down

Earlier this month, Apex Legends wrapped up its fourth competitive year at the ALGS Championship in Sapporo, Japan with underdogs GoNext Esports bringing home the trophy and $600,000 (~£482,800) in prize money.
The event, which took place at the sold-out Daiwa House Premist Dome, lasted for five days and exceeded over 30,000 tickets sold. Moreover, this year’s finals broke the record for most tickets sold for a single day in Apex Legends, beating the Year 4 Split One Playoffs.
Esports Insider went to Sapporo for the ALGS Championship to speak with the competition’s organisers and witness firsthand what they claimed to be their biggest event yet.
The ALGS Year 4 Championship marked the close of “the most global year in Apex Legends’ history,” according to Jasmine Chiang, Apex Legends Esports’ Global Brand Marketing Lead.
Year 4, which took place across 2024 and 2025, saw Split 1 held in the US in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, Split 2 headed to Mannheim, Germany with the ALGS finishing its tour in Japan.
Interestingly, the event took place just before one of the country’s busiest tourist events: the Snow Festival of Sapporo.

Year 4 of the ALGS was a time for expansion in the Apex Legends esports scene. In October, the BLGS (an open tournament) became the largest online tournament in the history of Apex Legends esports, an indication that there is a blossoming ecosystem.
The location of the ALGS Championship is also an example of the game’s expansion. Japan has become one of the biggest markets for EA’s battle royale with a growing audience of players and pros. As such, it only made sense for the competition to head to Japan for the first time in its history.
“We set the bar really high for this year’s finale,” John Nelson, Senior Director of Esports at EA Entertainment, told Esports Insider.
“We have branding in Shibuya (Tokyo) and all over Sapporo, we built the biggest fan zone ever and partnered with a rock band called SiM to make our first-ever opening ceremony performance and our first-ever anthem.”
For the first time in four years, the competition’s map pool was expanded to a third map — the newly released E-District — setting off a trend that the organisers hope will continue. “We had World’s Edge and Storm Point for three years, it was time for a change,” Nelson stated. “ We hope to continue this trend for future competitions.”
Making Memories for Fans

Outside of the tense action that occurred in the arena, it is also important to create a sense of occasion when attending an esports event live. As such, a major part of this year’s ALGS Championship was the Fan Zone.
Introduced last year, Sapporo got its biggest implementation yet. In this area there were free gadget giveaways, meet and greet opportunities with players, sponsor activations (Red Bull and Sony both had booths), a free play area with 60 seats, team booths and even a merch shop.
“We wanted to blow out the fan experience this year,” said Apex Legends Esports’ Global Brand Marketing Lead.
“We built our biggest fan zone yet with space for 16 team booths. After the very strong feedback from last year’s ALGS in Birmingham, we expanded on the team booths and the results are showing.”
Over the last three days of the competition, almost every team booth (those representing teams with Japanese rosters like Fnatic in particular) generated long queues of people waiting to buy something or participate in activities.
A lot has changed during Year 4 of the ALGS on the streaming side as well. After being the broadcast partner of the circuit for years, ESL FACEIT Group got to integrate the competition into FACEIT Watch, which has one feature that EA believes is key for the future of competitive battle royales.
Nelson explained: “They [ESL FACEIT Group] have been providing a multi-view product since the start of Year 4. By the Split 2 Playoffs, the feature was in a great state and captivated a high percentage of viewership on that event.
“I’m a strong believer in the essentiality of multi-view for battle royale esports consumption: if you are supporting a specific team, for example, the singular broadcast may give just glimpses of them. The multi-view allows you to follow who you want to follow, something key for this kind of competition.”
Match Point

When speaking to many attendees before and after the ALGS finals, one thing became clear. A major factor in fan enjoyment of Apex Legends esports is the Match Point format.
Designed by Nelson himself, this format awards the trophy in the finals to the team that wins a map after reaching a threshold of points through their performance in the series. This means no officials counting scores at the end of a set amount of games, or even a guarantee of how many maps will be played.
Whoever wins the decisive game brings home the trophy. This creates palpable tension in the arena that explodes at every important elimination. By the final map, nine out of 20 organisations hit the50-point threshold and were in with a chance of taking home the victory.
Alliance scored two second-place finishes in a bid to reach the title before the underdogs, GoNext Esports, secured the crucial map win for the EMEA region.
“I think the magic of the Match Point system lies in the fact that, in the last moments of every game, 90% of the arena is cheering for the team that’s not slated to win the whole thing so that the competition keeps going,” Nelson highlighted.
The ALGS Year 4 Championship managed to deliver on the promised excitement despite having one of the most defensive and passive metagames on record with Gibraltar and Newcastle being the most utilised Legends of the tournament.
Apex Legends Esports in 2025

After GoNext Esports lifted the trophy, the organisers took to the stage to announce big news for the 2025 calendar: the addition of a LAN open tournament.
Called the ALGS Open, this competition will feature 160 teams from all around the world: “Every pro league team in the world will be invited, plus another 40 teams.” Chiang told Esports Insider.
“It’s going to be a great opportunity for semi-pro and amateur trios to make it big.”
For Nelson, the event is going to be a callback to the very roots of esports: “It’s going to be like the Major League Gaming events or the EVOs of old. Gigantic LAN parties to make friends, compete and feel welcome,” he said.
“A lot of competitions feel very exclusive nowadays with 20 teams or 8 players invited: we wanted to create an event where aspiring pros could get their first LAN experience, and the fans could discover new teams and talents.”
Now on the cusp of its fifth anniversary, Apex Legends is showing no signs of battle royale fatigue. Whilst the Japanese time zone affected ALGS’ overall viewership, the event still managed to bring in over 540,000 peak viewers.
With Legend bans being implemented in Year 5, alongside other format changes, and EA looking to invest in its grassroots scene with the ALGS Open, the future does seem bright for the battle royale title.
The post Year 4 ALGS was bigger than ever, but Apex Legends is not looking to slow down appeared first on Esports Insider.
PROČITAJ VIŠE... https://esportsinsider.com/2025/02/year-4-algs-apex-legends-esport
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