ALGS Year 4 Championship preview: Schedule, Format and teams to watch out for 

The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Year 4 Championship is coming up in Sapporo, Japan at the Daiwa House PREMIST DOME from January 29th to February 2nd 2025.

40 of the best Apex Legends teams in the world will battle it out to become ALGS Year 4 Champion and win a lion’s share of its $2m (~£1.62m) prize pool. Here’s everything you need to know ahead of Apex Legends’ biggest event of the year.

One of the most significant announcements for the ALGS Year 4 Championship is that, for the first time since February 2022, there will be a new map — E-District — added to the ALGS map rotation. 

This is going to provide a major shakeup competitively as variables in play (drop points, points of interest and boxes) will multiply. The tournament is also ALGS’ LAN debut in Japan, a country where Apex Legends has become incredibly popular over the past two years. 

All of ALGS’ regions of play are represented at the Year 4 Championship. Teams from NA, EMEA, APAC North, APAC South, South Asia, and China earned their spots through the regular season and its two Playoffs.

Competing with a live audience, gaining time under the spotlight and having the opportunity to create fan events, giveaways and commercial activations, are just some of the perks that the ALGS grants to the teams that have qualified for the event. 

The practice was implemented at last year’s Championship in Birmingham and garnered a lot of praise from the teams. So this year it will be back, most likely in a larger fashion. 

This makes the ALGS Championship not only the pinnacle of competitive Apex but also the most important commercially. Organisations have an opportunity to monetise and interact with a live audience that’s deeply passionate about the game in a large-scale setting.

The ALGS Year 4 Championship consists of a Group Stage and Double-Elimination bracket format. 

In the Group Stage, each group plays a single six-match series against every other group for a total of 18 guaranteed matches per team. This means that Group A, for example, will compete in three series’ over the next two days against B, C and D.  

Day 1 – Wednesday, January 29th

Groups A & B – 9:00 am JST / 4:00 pm PT / 12:00 am GMT

Groups C & D – 1:15 pm JST / 8:15 pm PT / 4:15 am GMT

Groups B & D – 5:30 pm JST / 12:30 am PT / 8:30 am GMT

Day 2 – Thursday, January 30th

Groups A & C – 9:00 am JST / 4:00 pm PT / 12:00 am GMT

Groups B & C – 1:15 pm JST / 8:15 pm PT / 4:15 am GMT

Groups A & D – 5:30 pm JST / 12:30 am PT / 8:30 am GMT

Following the Group Stage, all teams will be assigned a starting position in the Bracket Stage’s double-elimination bracket based on each one’s Group Stage performance.

The top 20 teams will begin the Bracket Stage in the Winners Bracket, and the bottom 20 teams will start in the 1st round of the Elimination Bracket.

Each Bracket Stage round will consist of a single eight-match series. After the Winners’ Bracket series, the top 10 teams will advance to the Match Point Finals, and the bottom 10 teams will advance to the Elimination Bracket — Round 2. 

After each Elimination Bracket series, the bottom 10 teams will be eliminated from the tournament. Following the Elimination Bracket — Round 2 series, the top 10 teams will advance to the Match Point Finals.

At the end of the Bracket Stage, 20 teams will remain to compete in the Match Point Finals.

The Finals will consist of a single Match Point format series. This format, trademarked by Electronic Arts and Respawn, is what makes the ALGS Championship stand out amongst the other battle royale tournaments. 

Normally, when there’s a big final in a battle royale, the last moments are usually underwhelming. That’s because, sometimes, there isn’t a clear winner at the end of the last game because the officials have to count points, kills and other metrics.

EA and Respawn have come up with a way to ramp up the tension until the last second and have a clear winner emerge at the end. The Match Point format has a threshold of 50 points that a team (through wins and placements) has to reach to qualify for the win. Once the target has been reached, the only way for said team to bring home the trophy is to win a game by being the last men standing. 

No matter how many points beyond 50 a team has, they need to win a game to be crowned champions.

At the 2023 ALGS Championship finals in Birmingham, for example, OpTic Gaming was ahead of everyone else in the final but could not secure a win in time to bring home the title. Instead, TSM, a couple of matches after reaching 50 points, secured a win and with it the trophy. 

This means that there’s no fixed number of matches in the finals which becomes a test not only of skill but also endurance.

Going into the first days of the Championship, the teams that will be at the centre of attention will be Shopify Rebellion, Fnatic and Gaming Gladiators. These are the three organisations that left a mark on 2024’s competitive season with their performance. 

They are first, second and third on the Playoff Points chart, respectively, having put in solid performances across both Splits.

Closely following, and in contention for the top spots, are three more teams: Alliance, Team Falcons and Crazy Raccoon, the last of which has 500 Points from the first Split Playoffs alone.

100 thieves and NRG have 220 and 200 points, respectively, having only participated in one Split each.

ALGS Split 2 winners Spacestation Gaming will not be present at the event with its roster disbanding shortly after lifting the trophy. However, all players will be at the ALGS Championship. Brody ‘Xynew’ Geissler and Israel ‘Koyful’ Lawrence are in Shopify Rebellion’s team and Josue ‘Phony’ Ruizis is with Guild.