Everything you need to know about the NA ALGS Split 1 playoffs

Split 1 of the North American Apex Legends Global Series Pro Series took place last year from October through December. The top 20 teams from the split will now compete in the playoffs, which take place Sunday, Jan. 23. Teams will play a series of games and earn points based on placement and kills. Kills will be worth one point each and points for placement in a game will be broken down as follows:

• 1st – 12 points
• 2nd – 9 points
• 3rd – 7 points
• 4th – 5 points
• 5th – 4 points
• 6th-7th – 3 points
• 8th-10th – 2 points
• 11th-15th – 1 point
• 16th-20th – 0 points

Once a team reaches 50 points, that team becomes “match point eligible,” and then the first “match point eligible” team to win a game will win the playoffs. Multiple teams can, and likely will, become match point eligible before a champion is crowned.

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One caveat is that the top 10 teams will start the playoffs with an advantage, with the first-place team from Split 1 (Sentinels) starting the playoffs with 10 points, the second place team (NRG) with nine points, and so on. Essentially, Sentinels will have to earn 40 points to become “match point eligible,” NRG will have to earn 41, and so on down to the 10th team. Teams 11 through 20 won’t have any advantage and will have to earn 50 throughout the games played in the playoffs.

The 20 teams competing are listed below with their point totals accrued over six rounds of competition in Split 1. Each round consisted of six games, and each team got anywhere from zero to 12 points in a round based on how many points they accrued over the games played in that round.

Playoff teams

• NRG – 47 points
• Sentinels – 47 points
• Esports Arena – 40 points
• G2 Esports – 36 points
• TSM – 33 points
• Spacestation Gaming – 30 points
• Complexity – 30 points
• 100 Thieves – 25 points
• Cloud9 – 24 points
• Dubblyew – 24 points
• XSET – 21 points
• Knights – 21 points
• Renegades – 18 points
• Premier – 18 points
• FURIA – 18 points
• Oxygen – 18 points
• Team Liquid – 16 points
• Torrent – 15 points
• Noble – 15 points
• Lazarus – 14 points

Teams to watch

Favorites: NRG and Sentinels

The two favorites going into the playoffs are clearly NRG and Sentinels. They finished the ALGS Pro League Split 1 with 47 points apiece and were ahead of the third-place team by a significant margin.

NRG recovered from a slow start in Round 1 to finish at least second in four of the next five rounds of competition. They finished first in one of those four rounds, which netted them 12 points. They were the most consistent team in the latter half of the split.

Sentinels were the only team to finish first in two rounds. They also finished the split strong, finishing second in two of the final four rounds in addition to the first-place finish they got in Round 4.

Contenders: 100 Thieves, TSM and Cloud9

The three teams in this tier were not as consistently good throughout the split as the favorites but they showed some promising results and have a history of winning big tournaments.

100 Thieves jumped into Apex Legends for Split 1 by signing Kungarna NA, the 2021 North American ALGS champions.Their results were fairly average for most of the split until they got first place in Round 6. They won three straight games to close out Round 6. Combined with the double-digit points they got via kills in each of those games, 100 Thieves finished first in Round 6.

TSM did not finish first in any round of the split, but their results were consistently above average, and they have historically been one of the best teams in Apex Legends esports. The duo of Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen and Jordan "Reps" Wolfe have been with TSM since early 2019 and picked up multiple trophies along the way. Their newest teammate, Evan "Verhulst" Verhulst, joined in December after Eric "Snip3down" Wrona retired and switched to playing Halo. Verhulst joined after spending the majority of the split with Esports Arena, the team that finished third in points after NRG and Sentinels.

Cloud9 got a first-place finish in Round 2, but otherwise didn’t have any other standout results in the split. However, they finished second in the 2021 North American ALGS championship, with two of the three players currently on the roster. The third member of the trio, Mac "Albralelie" Beckwith, joined just after the championship and has been playing with the team as a stand-in. Abralelie was a longtime member of a highly decorated TSM roster, so it’s possible he can elevate this roster to even greater heights.

Dark horses: XSET, Knights and Renegades

The teams in this tier are the most likely among those that finished outside the top 10 in Split 1 to potentially break through in the playoffs. XSET and Knights each picked up first-place finishes in one round. They’re the only squads among the bottom 10 teams to have picked up first-place finishes. Renegades did not finish first in any round; their highest was third in Round 2. However, they finished fourth in the North American ALGS 2021 championship. Two of the three members of this roster were on that team, so they have the potential to make a run in the playoffs.

Lead image credit: EA