EA Announces Plans For ALGS Year 3, With Three LAN Events and $5 Million Prize Pool

EA Games announced details about the upcoming Apex Legends Global Series season, which is set to return in October. As revealed, the third year of the professional Apex Legends circuit will include three LAN events, a $5 million prize pool, and a plethora of other changes.

The third year of Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) is set to return in October 2023, EA announced on Wednesday, September 15. The third year of Apex’s top professional circuit will introduce many format changes, transforming and upgrading the competition from the previous two years.

Notably, EA plans to host in-person events, including Split One playoffs in winter 2023, Split Two playoffs in spring, and the season-culminating ALGS Championship, which is scheduled to take place next summer.

Although EA revealed the three events and plans for them, the organizer has not yet shared any details about the LAN events.

The general outline for the ALGS will remain the same as in the previous season, meaning there will be two Pro League splits, culminating with the playoffs. However, some changes are coming to the circuit’s format.

As stated, each of the regional Pro Leagues will now feature only 30 teams. The change was implemented to ensure the highest level of competition in the division. Last season, the ALGS regional Pro Leagues featured 40 teams each.

The 30 participating teams in the ALGS regional Pro Leagues will be comprised of 22 squads which will receive a direct invite to the tournament, and eight teams who will qualify for the event via preliminary preseason qualifier.

The upcoming season will also host Regional Final on the final day of each Pro League regular season, split in a bit to improve the engagement among players and the fans.

The Regional Finals will be played in a match point format, similar to the ALGS Championship, and welcome only the top 20 teams from each region’s Pro League. Moreover, the winners of the Regional Finals will be granted a spot in LAN playoffs, increasing the stakes of the competition.

Besides implementing changes to the ALGS, EA also introduced some adjustments to the second-tier Challengers Circuit.

From 2023, the winner of each Challenger Circuit will directly qualify for Split Two Pro League qualifiers or the Last Chance Qualifiers, depending on which Challengers Circuit they win (second or third).

The long-awaited change now sees Challenger Circuit serve as a gateway into the top division and to the world’s top ALGS tournaments.

Besides the introduction of a new format that will reshape the competitive Apex Legends scene, the 2023 season will also see changes elsewhere. Notably, the two-time LAN champions DarkZero have officially moved from APAC South into the NA Pro League.

There they’ll join FURIA, Tripods, and other big names in the Apex Legends such as OpTic Gaming, TSM, and NRG in one of the world’s top regions, hoping the move will help the squad improve further as DarkZero look to keep their tag as a dominant force.

EA announced the changes to the 2023 season following a long offseason, which started with the conclusion of Apex Legends Global Series: 2022 Championship on July 10. But even though the fans had to wait long to hear what EA has in store for the 2023 season, the wait was well worth it.

Apex Legends now enters the third year of competition, having seen a lot of success in 2022. Notably, the Year 2 Champions saw a total of over 11 million hours of watch time, highlighting the continuous growth of Apex Legends’ competitive scene.