Everything you need to know about ALGS Split 2 playoffs

April 20, 2022

by Brian Bencomo

For the first time since 2019, a major Apex Legends tournament is set to take place on LAN. In 2019, the best Apex Legends teams in the world got together for four major tournaments: TwitchCon Europe and TwitchCon San Diego, the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational and the EXP Invitational at the X Games. The COVID-19 pandemic has scuttled plans for any major offline tournaments since 2020, so this will be the first major LAN for the Apex Legends Global Series since the ALGS kicked off last year. This will be the most lucrative Apex Legends tournament ever with a prize pool of $1 million.

There will be 40 teams competing in Stockholm from North America (NA), Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia-Pacific (APAC) and South America (SA). The tournament will take place from April 20 through May 1. To get you up to speed with everything you need to know about the tournament, here is a breakdown of the schedule and format, points breakdown and teams to watch.

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Schedule and format

The first day of the tournament will be the group stage. The 40 teams have been divided into four groups of 10, and each group will play a series of six games against each other group. Each team will play in three series (18 games) during the group stage.

The top 20 teams in the group stage will proceed to the upper bracket of the playoffs the next day. The bottom 20 teams will move on to the lower bracket. From there, the top 20 will play one six-game series to determine a top 10 that will advance to the finals. The lower bracket will consist of two rounds, with the bottom 20 playing two six-game series in Round 1. In Round 2, the top 10 from Round 1 will advance to play against the bottom 10 from the upper bracket. These 20 teams will play two six-game series, and the top 10 will advance to the finals.

In the finals, the final 20 teams will play an unlimited number of games until a team reaches 50 points and becomes “match point eligible.” More teams can become match point eligible in subsequent games, and the first team to win a game after becoming match point eligible wins the tournament.

Points breakdown

Teams will earn points in games 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

Additionally, the 10 teams that reach the finals from the upper bracket will receive a points advantage in the finals according to the following breakdown:

1st: 10
2nd: 9
3rd: 8
4th: 7
5th: 6
6th: 5
7th: 4
8th: 3
9th: 2
10th: 1

So, in other words, while the 10 teams that reach the finals via the lower bracket will have to reach 50 points to become match point eligible, the top team from the upper bracket will only need to accrue 40 points, the second-best team will need 41 and so on.

10 teams to watch

OpTic Gaming

The roster formerly playing as Esports Arena finished first in Split 2 of the NA ALGS Pro League and third in both Split 1 and the Split 1 playoffs. On April 14, Esports Arena announced it was parting ways with Ira "dooplex" Shepherd and William "SkittleCakes" August. Skittlecakes, dooplex and former Esports Arena stand-in Logan "Knoqd" Layou have been picked up by OpTic Gaming ahead of the start of the Split 2 playoffs. At the rate OpTic have been picking up championships lately, this squad might be the next to get the org another title.

NRG

NRG were second in both Split 1 and the Split 1 playoffs, and they finished third in Split 2. With their track record of consistently strong finishes, they should be in contention to be one of the top finishers in Stockholm. NRG were actually one of the top teams at the last major Apex Legends LAN, TwitchCon San Diego, but the org’s current roster came together in 2020/21.

TSM

TSM is synonymous with success in Apex Legends. The org finished first at both the EXP Invitational and the Apex Legends Invitational in 2019. TSM also finished first in the recent Split 1 playoffs. Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen and Jordan "Reps" Wolfe have been with the team for all of these victories and make TSM the most experienced and decorated squad in Stockholm. They are undoubtedly one of the favorites.

Team Empire

EMEA

The highly successful Russian org entered Apex Legends in February and has found immediate success. They finished first in EMEA Split 2. The trio of players they picked up were formerly an orgless team called MajorPushers who finished sixth in the Split 1 playoffs.

Acend

EMEA

Like Team Empire, the other European squad to watch in the Split 2 playoffs picked up their roster in February. Acend signed the team formerly known as NEW Esports, who finished first in the Split 1 playoffs. In Split 2 under the Acend banner, the Portuguese roster finished fifth.

esports team aD / aDRaccoon

APAC

One team stood above all the rest in the APAC North region: esports team aD aka aDRaccoon. This roster was formerly signed by an org known as Riddle (and T1 before that) and won both Split 1 and the Split 1 playoffs. Ahead of Split 2, the trio of Oh "Parkha" Jeong-teak, Lim "Obly" Jung-hyun and Lee "KaronPe" Min-hyuk signed with aD. KaronPe and Parkha were actually on an unsigned team called Wyvern that finished third at the Apex Legends Invitational in 2019.

Reignite

APAC

Reignite have dominated the APAC South region almost as much as esports team aD have dominated the North. Reignite finished first in both Split 1 and Split 2 but second in the Split 1 playoffs. They were so close to winning the playoffs too. They reached match point eligibility in the same round as Dreamfire, the team that ultimately won, and then finished second to Dreamfire in the final round of competition.

Team Burger

APAC

Always the bridesmaid, never the bride. Like NRG in NA, Team Burger have a track record of consistently good results in the APAC South region this season without any first-place finishes. Team Burger finished third in Split 1, the Split 1 playoffs and Split 2.

Team Singularity

Continuing the trend of teams dominating their regions, Team Singularity finished first in South America’s ALGS Split 1, Split 1 playoffs and Split 2. They didn’t really even have close competition in the Split 1 playoffs as they became the first team to become match point eligible and then won the subsequent round. The trio of two Brazilians (Lucas "artiNN1" Cafure and Hernandes "Besk9" Mateus dos Santos) and one Chilean (Felipe "Elysium" Zapata) have been together since September.

Fenix Team

Playing second fiddle to Team Singularity in South America was Fenix. They finished second across all three competitions this season, Split 1, the Split 1 playoffs and Split 2. Although Team Singularity seems a cut above the competition in South America, Fenix did finish off Split 2 hot, winning their last three series of the split including finishing ahead of Singularity in the last one.

Lead photo credit: Joshua Gateley / ESPN Images