Let Me Introduce You To Esports

Almost twenty years ago, I couldn't have imagined esports becoming popular in the US because it was so disparaged by mainstream media and outright unaccepted by the sports community. Those were the days of the MLG (Major League Gaming) Pro Circuit. My brother and friends and I would watch the Halo 2 tournaments on TV and dream of getting the chance to compete in pros gaming. In fact, we even supported each other at regional LAN (local area network) tournaments with no real success to speak of. Regardless, it just wasn't something people supported or really understood. Most still don't.

Today, I'm excited to watch my favorite teams compete for their share of a $1 million prize pool in a professional battle royale video game tournament. Let me introduce you to esports in the form of Apex Legends Global Series.

First, Apex Legends is a first-person battle royale hero-shooter developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It was released in 2019 and currently boasts over 67 million active players. Because I'm hoping people like my mom or my wife will read this (fat chance), let me explain what some of that means. "First-person," most of the time referred to as "fps," is when you play a game in the perspective that you are the hero. The "hero," (in this game called, 'Legends') is a character with unique abilities that you can use throughout the game. You pick which Legend you want to play, often based on team composition and which legend abilities coordinate well with one another, or according to which legends' skins (outfits) you like best. (Just kidding! — no I'm not.) Apex Legends battle royale is a team game in which 20 teams of 3 battle to be the last team standing. At the beginning of the game, you drop into the game map while skydiving to your desired point of interest. Once you land, you collect loot, which is everything from guns and bullets, to shield upgrades and health. You'll typically pick up what you can, but once you're on the ground, it's a race to be the winner. So, that means you're gonna fight.

The fighting is where the excitement is, and it's also why fps games make for great entertainment. It takes hundreds, often thousands of hours to gain the skills of a professional gamer. It's my opinion that this is the issue parents and frankly, most people my age and older, take with esports. Many still imagine video games as a time-waster or perpetrator of laziness. Believe that if you want. However, you cannot imagine the pressure and strategy it takes to play games at this level. Don't believe me? Go check out the comments sections on social media posts about local high schools and colleges adding esports to their scholastic activities. Most esports are team games, which requires great communication, collaboration, practice, and planning. Many colleges and universities are giving scholarships for esports! Your kids aren't in any trouble of becoming useless just because they have an interest in video games. I could write pages about this topic, but I really want to tell you about the ALGS tournament.

Last weekend, May 2-5, the Apex Legends Global Series year 4 split 1 playoffs took place in Los Angeles, CA. As the name suggests, this tournament hosts 40 teams from around the world, and they've qualified through a series of online regional circuits. (I've simplified that a lot!) In this tournament there were 12 North American teams, 8 EMEA teams (Europe, the Middle East, and Africa),  8 APAC North teams (Asian Pacific North), 8 APAC South (Asian Pacific South),  2 South American teams, and 2 invited Chinese teams. Most of these teams are represented by an esports organization which fields teams that compete in different games. For example, Spacestation Gaming (SSG) represents teams in Apex Legends, Rocket League, Rainbow Six Seige, Halo, PUBG, Brawl Stars, and Overwatch 2.

Before the tournament begins, the teams are sorted into 4 groups of 10, which appear to be assembled using a snake draft method. There isn't much consequence to group placement because the first round of the tournament is a round robin, where every group will play every other group in 6 matches (3 matches on 2 different maps), to determine bracket placements based on points they earned. Points are earned by match placement plus kills. 1 point per kill, 1 point for placing 15th-11th, 2 points for placing 10th-8th, 3 points for placing 7th-6th, 4 points for placing 5th, 5 points for placing 4th, 7 points for placing 3rd, 9 points for placing 2nd, and 12 points for placing 1st.

The group stage, or round robin started at 10 AM PT Thursday, May 2nd, and continued on Firday, May 3rd. On Saturday, May 4th, the bottom 20 teams after the conclusion of the group stage (based on points) played in the losers round 1 bracket for 6 matches. The top 10 teams from that game moved on to play in the losers round 2 bracket, and the bottom 10 teams were eliminated from the tournament. The top 20 teams from the conclusion of group stage (based on points) played in the winners bracket for 6 matches, and the top 10 teams from that game (again, based on points) moved on to the finals bracket, while the bottom 10 teams moved on to the round 2 losers bracket. Losers round 2 bracket played 6 matches. The bottom 10 teams were eliminated from the tournament, and the top 10 moved on to finals. Finals, took place on Sunday, May 5th. The finals bracket is a match point series, in which the highest seeded teams are rewarded points to start. Once a team earns 50 points, they become Match Point Eligible. Then, they must win a game to become ALGS Year 4 Split 1 Playoff Winners, taking home $300,000 + Playoff Points to help them qualify for the year-end ALGS Championship.

The group stage round robin action really kicked off the weekend in an exciting fashion. If you want to watch, check out ALGS highlights on YouTube. Here is a link to a website called, Battlefy if you're interested in following along with the scoring and stats for the next split. Also, if you're interested, the teams I'm rooting for in ALGS year 4 are, SSG, o7, and I'm a shameless fan of the powerhouse TSM. It might seem like a lot is going on and it's hard to follow, but watch esports the way you would watch any sport you're not familiar with. There is crowd noise from fans at the event, casters giving you play-by-play commentary, and match discussion from a panel desk after each match. I encourage you to check it out. First-person battle royale hero-shooters might not be your thing, but next time I'll tell you about race car soccer.


UPDATE 5/6/24
APAC North team REJECT WINNITY wins the region's first ever ALGS LAN tournament! The series came to a close after a nail-biting 8 games. In the final game we saw 8 out of 20 teams match point eligible, making REJECT WINNITY's victory that much more impressive. The team claimed their trophy and the $300,000 prize in a convincing display of talent. Their own, Sangjoon, was crowned Split 1 Playoffs MVP. Congrats to them and to APAC North. With their win, they've secured more spots in the next split for their region, and a win like this from a new region is good for the sport. GGs go next.