One squad, one org: the new rule set to reshape the landscape in year 2 of pro Apex
This is The Final Circle, a newsletter for everyone in the Apex community
Something important went almost unmentioned in the hubbub of the recent announcement of Year 2 of the Apex Legends Global Series.
It was easy to get caught up with the handsomely increased prize pools, the introduction of console players to competition, and a revamped structure featuring two different tiers of play—not to mention the return of in-person tournaments.
But if you follow Shahin Kanafchian on Twitter, who handles competitive gaming partnerships for Apex, you might have seen his tweet about a rule change for the ALGS this fall, announcing that each org may only field one team across all regions.
Despite flying under the radar, this new rule has wide-ranging implications. For one, it will force some of the best Apex players in the world off their rosters. It will also churn the pool of free agents, destabilize the current meta-strategy among team owners and operators, and will ensure that the awkward situation of two squads from the same organization fighting each other (or not fighting each other, as is more likely) won’t happen at a global LAN tournament, where big bucks will be on the line. That fixes a problem from the Poland LAN, where Team Liquid and FNATIC each fielded two rosters, unfairly increasing their chances of draping an olive laurel on the winning squad.
Those in the pro community who did see Shahin’s tweet mostly expressed dismay at the rule change, perhaps seeing an instant narrowing of their professional options and a reduction in the total amount of cash paid to pro players. As you can see below, these two smaller orgs were eventually resigned to their fate.
The Russian player and LAN hero Esdesu was more blunt:
Still others don’t appear to have knowledge of the rule, or else imagine that it might be bent or broken for them in particular. Kanafchian stated on Twitter that teams like TSM, for example, could continue to sponsor four players as long as they didn’t compete for the same org.
The Korean team BearClaw Gaming, who is investing in Apex talent at the moment, signed two teams in rapid succession in early August: a European roster and a female-only team. When I DM’ed the team’s Twitter account inquiring about their plans regarding the rule change, they didn’t acknowledge it: “Currently at the moment, we see one squad per region rule. So we will try to have one per region.” They added, “if it does come to only one competing in the ALGS, we will try to get an exception. If not, we will do separate events.”
These difficult choices await both the teams rich enough to pay salaries to more than one squad and to the less wealthy organizations who never paid a living wage in the first place and can ‘afford’ as many squads as they can scout.
Kungarna is a good example of a organization confronted by hard choices because of the rule change. Kungarna NA hit the jackpot in the ALGS Championships with a well-deserved win from Omnuu, vein, and scuwry, who won $265,000 for their efforts on Match Point.
The NA roster was signed in June, just before the Championships, joining the EU players Jmw, Graceful, and maydeelol, who have an impressive record in their own right. Though the OG Kungarna squad didn’t do as well in the EMEA Championships, they won the BLAST Titans Arenas tournament less than two weeks ago. And as the unsigned squad Nessy, they were among the best players in EU, with a win at GLL’s Masters Spring and strong, consistent results elsewhere, earning more than $65,000 during their tenure as Nessy.
In Japan, where Apex seems to be the national sport, it’s common for top-tier organizations that compete in the ALGS to field more than one squad.
The Japanese org Reignite currently has two talented pro Apex teams. The first squad, called Reignite North, competes in APAC North from Tokyo, Japan, where the org is based. The roster consists of the Japanese players DizzyMizLizyy, 788, and SPK. Reignite North placed 5th in the ALGS Championship, netting them nearly $25,000. They’ve been active this summer. SPK is a post-Championship addition to the team, and they recently competed in one of the tourneys sponsored by Fennel, another Japanese team. (Incidentally, Fennel also had two rosters at one point, but has since dropped their Korean roster).
Reignite announced their second Apex roster back in January, when they signed the popular Australian player Genburten, Tempplex, and zer0. Reignite South plays in APAC South, as you might expect; they swept the Winter Circuit with 4 1st place finishes. While bigger tournament wins eluded them, with a 7th place finish in the Winter Circuit Playoffs (roughly $2700) and an 8th place in the ALGS Championship ($11,500), this team is undoubtedly one of the best in the region as well. Genburten in particular has acquired a strong following on Twitch and other social media, making him a highly valuable player in the publicity meta-game of esports.
Now the Tokyo-based org is faced with a difficult choice, one that’s set to limit the team’s growth, brand strength, prize winnings, and international reach—regardless of what they choose.
Should they keep their original Japanese roster, competing in the robust APAC North scene? Or should they or put all their eggs into the APAC South basket, a region with possibly weaker competition and almost certainly less popular than APAC North, but with an emerging star in Genburten?
Another way to handle the rule change could involve setting a second or third roster to compete in strictly non-ALGS events. For example, APAC North has its own fairly well-developed independent tournament scene, while Arenas mode is primed to offer an entire ecosystem of Apex action separate from battle royale.
Finally, I’ve commented on the robust grassroots ways that Apex players have promoted female players in the community. But in its promotion and and encouragement of female players on the professional circuit, the ALGS could do a lot more, like following Riot’s lead with its female-only circuit that supplements the Valorant Champions Tour, Game Changers. Apex has no official apparatus to encourage cracked female players in their professional ambitions. Despite the lack of formal support, women are increasingly eager to play competitive Apex in general and in the ALGS in particular—look no further than the successful female-only scrims organized by community stalwarts HisandHersLive. But unless the rule is bent or further clarified before the start of Year 2, players like TSM’s Janey and the new squad at BearClaw will likely stay behind the curtain on the game’s biggest stage.
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The big business of Apex
What else is new this summer? Apex continues to play an outsize role in speeches from the executive suite at EA. The other day on the EA earnings call, a bigwig boasted that the game had 13 million weekly active users during Season 9. It hit a new record for peak daily players, and the three latest events have driven the highest player counts for events so far.
EA hit $1.55 billion in net revenue in just one quarter of the financial year, and execs “see outstanding growth ahead.” A focus on development of the mobile game was prominently mentioned to rake in even more cash in the future, while the newborn Arenas mode was singled out as a potential way to provide “deeper esports opportunities.” Apex is “on track” to grow more than 20% this year.
In related news, a recent video report by the esports news site Upcomer managed to nab a prize for the most unlucky timing of a story I’ve ever seen. Their well-researched report on the cheaters running rampant in ranked play and the ensuing community backlash of #SaveApexRanked came a tad too late, as scores of other commenters on social media were quick to point out. “The Rise and Fall of Apex Legends Ranked — How hackers became the true Apex Predators” was released a week ago, just as the game was riding high on the Season 10 release and reports of cheaters had all but faded into the background hum of a massively successful, near-glitchless season debut.
“The scene is dying and it's all because of hackers in the highest ranks of competitive,” read the subheading. Not a ton of people realize that reporters rarely write their headlines, but these stretched the truth like a rubber band. By the time the video was released, Apex was enjoying its strongest season release…ever, with a peak of 414,000 viewers on Twitch. The game hasn’t seen such robust figures since its release way back in February 2019, when I was still a young man. The numbers speak for themselves, and the game has been riding high on Steam’s list of games with the highest concurrent player counts as well, sitting at #4 and beating out the juggernaut GTA 5 as of my last check.
I am always a little pleased to be in the position where the success of the game has become a news item worth mentioning—particularly after a time when morale among streamers and pros seemed to be flagging.
If you ignore the ‘Just Chatting’ category, Apex has been standing on the Olympic podium of Twitch with a solid bronze medal. On any given night, you can watch some of the biggest personalities on Twitch playing Apex, none of which I’ve yet seen with the #sponsored tag attached, indicating their legal duty to report being paid by EA. TimTheTatman, Nickmercs, and even xQc have been appearing with hordes of viewers, while old fixtures of the scene who moved on to other games, like HusKerrs and Mendo, have made returns to their home on World’s Edge.
It’s true that a lot of the fresh blood in Apex Twitch is coming from the Warzone community, who are fed up with their own epidemic of cheaters and the (seemingly) lackadaisical efforts made by the developers over there. But we shouldn’t look a gift horse in the mouth.
What’s happening in Apex this week:
I had a long conversation with Daniel Z. Klein yesterday, whose social media missteps I’ve covered here before, and wrote about the current situation in the broader context of his career and relationship with the Apex community in a feature today at Fanbyte. Check it out, I worked my butt off on this one.
TSMは日本が大好きです: It’s still easy to forget that in Japan, TSM’s ImperialHal isn’t even the most popular Apex player named Hal. The pros Rkn and Euriece have made concerted efforts to tap into their Japanese audiences, so it’s only natural that big orgs are eager to reach out to fans on the Pacific Rim as well.
Respawn lead software engineer Samy Duc joined Glenn Fiedler in a conversation on YouTube about “P2P [Peer-to-Peer] vs. Client/Server, latency and matchmaking.” (Full disclosure: I haven’t watched this yet, but I feel confident it will interest at least some of you).
GLL is putting on an Arenas tournament from August 20th to August 29th. Obviously not this week, but worth keeping on the radar.
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