Madness gets his respect, the return of Albralelie, Series E draft day and drama, and upcoming tourneys
This is The Final Circle, a newsletter for competitive Apex
A big congrats to Alliance and CLG, who won the EU and NA finals of PGL’s Apex Showdown respectively this past weekend. Each squad earned $12,000 of the $30,000 prize pool. Alliance clinched in EU with back-to-back wins, while Nessy, who placed 2nd and earned more points, is still looking for an org.
The other regions were played for a prize pool of $10,000 and, unlike NA and EU, didn’t feature the match point format. The powerhouse team T1 took 1st place in Asia Pacific North, LYNX TH won Asia Pacific South with back-to-back wins in the last two games, and BRAZUCAS took South America. Unfortunately, Middle East and Africa didn’t field enough teams to hold a qualifier, and only 16 teams were in the finals lobby, but congrats nonetheless to the South African team ATK.
As I said in the last edition, the PGL broadcast had to be seen to be believed—there were snazzy-looking graphics, stats and graphs, it was broadcasted on YouTube in 4k, and overall it was a cut above what we’ve seen in the ALGS so far. This will come as no surprise to anyone who’s familiar with PGL (I wasn’t): they’re the same company who produces The International for DOTA 2, the biggest esports tournament in the world, and they’ve been around since 2002, putting them in stark contrast with newer broadcasters and organizers like Esports Arena and GLL.
That depth of experience was clear. While there were some mistakes, like having to replay game 1 of the EU finals due to broadcasting without a delay, the Apex Showdown was highly professional, more reminescent of last year’s $500,000 Preseason Invitational than any of 2020’s online-only tournaments.
Zone vs. Edge
In NA at least, the role RNG (i.e. luck) plays in Apex was back in the spotlight. The zone pulls were unpredictable, catching teams off-guard and surprising the casters as well.
‘Edge’ teams who take their time looting and who play for kills along the perimeter of the circle were thrust unexpectedly into perfect central positions, leaving 'Zone’ teams, who loot quickly and play for position, scrambling to make difficult rotations.
Of those ‘Zone’ teams, CLG was dominant, proving themselves by not only surviving those difficult rotations, but re-establishing their central positioning and picking up lots of kills along the way. Of course, the RNG gods helped them out in the last game, where they won from an incredibly strong position after the zone happened to drop right over their heads.
With the combination of this win and their Summer Circuit Playoffs victory, both in the match point format, this CLG roster has cemented its place as the team to beat in big tournaments, and Madness had gone from a footnote on a middling CLG roster dominated by two big personalities to shot-calling on the top team in North America. They netted three wins in seven games; no other team in NA won more than once.
It was another disappointing performance from TSM, who struggled enough in their rotations to switch to a Gibby comp more suited to edge play. Despite netting a dozen kills in a wild sequence of team fighting after the switch, they failed to put significant points on the board in the following games and finished outside the top ten.
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Albralelie’s Return
After less than a month, the shortest retirement I’ve seen in esports so far, Albralelie was back in Apex this week, thwarting his old teammates Reps and Hal by beating TSM by 3 points on the second day of the Esports Arena Series E ‘regular season’. With a prize pool of $500 only awarded to the top 2 teams, this certainly wasn’t about the money, a fact made more clear by Hal’s vocal frustration when they failed to kill a compromised Team Liquid in the last game and then watched them, and Albralelie, delete the rest of the lobby, coasting to victory. A few games before, Albralelie had run up on his old teammates and Krabered them to death.
It’s getting spicy in the NA Apex scene. TSM is once again butting heads over shot-calling—the older and more experienced Snip3down chafing at Hal’s unique style of leadership—while Albralelie’s quick return to the scene may indicate his ‘retirement’ was just a graceful way of getting off TSM.
Series E Draft Day and the beginning of its season
Esports Arena’s Series E Draft Day was a parade of congratulatory interviews separated by plugs for the sponsoring brands. The Twitch chat watching the event seemed to be almost exclusively well-known Apex players or Series E participants, and alternated between lighthearted jabs at the broadcast, which felt more like an infomercial than an esports event, and more substantive criticism—like comments about how the signed teams must really enjoy playing for $5 an hour (in reality, they likely play for much, much less than that).
During one of the segments, the Draft Day veered into public relations damage control. Prompted by the CEO of Esports Arena to talk about the value of Series E to players, the veteran caster Jamerson offered up an impassioned defense. He talked candidly about having to work multiple jobs in esports when he was coming up on the scene, and how the institutional support of $500 a month for three months on Team Pop-Tarts could make a big difference for players. I appreciated his candor about the scarcity of money and the loss of big orgs in the Apex scene and I agree about the importance of semi-pro opportunities in building grassroots infrastructure. On the other hand, just because it was difficult for him to get fairly paid for his work when he was coming up doesn’t mean that new players should suffer the same. On a related note, Esports Arena has updated the FAQ section of the Series E website—I’ve highlighted the changes below.
Ultimately, I stand by what I’ve said about Series E in the past. It’s good for the health of the competitive ecosystem. It’s a great opportunity for the players who chose to sign up. But let’s be real about the compensation: brands like Intel, Nestle and Kellogg (who, FYI, own Pop-Tarts, Pringles, Cheez-it, Apple Jacks and Rice Krispie Treats) could easily pay their new Apex squads $5,000 a month for that three month contract, and they wouldn’t miss a penny of it—Intel spent $800 million on advertising alone last year—while a salary bump to these teams would make a tremendous difference. As it stands, Series E amounts to an essentially zero-cost, high-visibility advertising campaign for the brands.
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Upcoming events:
ALGS Autumn Circuit tournament #3 is this weekend, from Saturday, October 31st to Monday, November 2nd. Next week I’ll be back with a debrief of that tournament, as well as a look at the new map and how additions like vehicles will affect competitive play. In the meantime, I’d love to hear what everyone thinks of what we know so far, whether it’s about the new character, Horizon, or just how the map looks and how it might play.
Also, Gdolphn’s Random Royal Rumble is today, where teams are randomized every round, so if you want to catch it, head over to his channel now!
Would love to hear your thoughts on Season 7 when more details are released. As always, great read, thanks!