The ALGS Split 1 Playoffs are over and the dust is still settling. The online regional tournaments arguably created more questions than they answered: will anyone beat Riddle at LAN? What happened to former ALGS Champions SCARZ EU? Is TSM back back?
As well as the questions, however, we did have some answers. TSM has clearly made things click in a post-Snip3down era, LANs can’t come soon enough, and 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Apex Legends esports broadcasts just keep getting better.
If you want a rundown of the results, head to (the winners were Singularity, DreamFire, Riddle, NEW, and TSM if you really need to know). We’re here for some hardcore analysis and trying to work out exactly what it all means; what team compositions performed best, where the meta is shifting, and how effective the broadcast 📖changes were. We’ll start with the Legends🌟 themselves.
Loba and Crypto were the biggest winners of Playoffs, seeing plenty of use in NA and EMEA respectively. Multiple NA teams have taken to combining Loba and Valkyrie; after 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:the💛 latter&rsqu𝔍o;s rise to power in Apex esports, rotating early and looting up for free using Loba’s Ultimate proved a fruitful strategy. While Caustic saw an increase in usage across the re๊gions, this particular partnership was most often combined with Gibraltar for safe resets. If the rumoured Gibby nerf happens in Season 12, however, Loba/Valkyrie/Caustic compositions could be perfect for getting free rotations and securing a good position for the ♌endgame of each round.
In what seemed like a flashback to ALGS Season 1, the EMEA Playoffs were filled with the sound of a dozen Crypto drones - just like my Twitter feed. Perfect for gathering information and punishing a mistimed Gibby bubble, the EMEA is firmly Team 🥀Crypto at the moment. You can’t help but feel this could change with a Gibby nerf, however, as the need to counter Dome Shields will be considerably lessened. Caustic’s slow, gaseous resurgence continues across all regions, and he seems the most likely to feature prominently at in-person LAN events, along with the usual suspects.
𝐆Only one team used Wraith in NA, although Phillip ‘ImperialHal’ Dosen showed the rest of the lobby why she’s still top dog, winning the tournament using the classic character. It helps that he hit ju𒊎st about every Wingman shot he lined up, but Wraith’s interdimensional abilities came in clutch on numerous occasions.
When it comes to the winning teams, there were few surprises. The big dogs are back on top in NA, with TSM and NRG returning to the top of the pack and Sentinels continuing its fine form. ESA, even without Evan ‘Verhulst’ Verhulst, remains oneﷺ of the most underrated teams in the region and clinched third place. Rid𓆏dle and Singularity topped the tables in APAC North and SA respectively.
However, the results in APAC South and EMEA brought up Apex esports’ most controversial topic once more - Match Point. I’ve already talked in-depth about how disagreeing with the Match Point format presents a fundamental misunderstanding of battle royale 𓆉games, but the debate rages on among pro players. Alliance and Reignite dominated EMEA and APAC S respectively only t꧑o lose out to teams that performed l𝔉ess consistently - but crucially won a match when they needed to.
Both of the regions’ Playoffs were long and hard-fought affairs, and the most consistent teams couldn’t clutch the wins when they needed them. Alliance became Match Point Eligible in an unprecedented two games, but couldn’t place better than third in the remaining eight rounds - and the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:anonymous kill feed meant that they weren't being aped as much as Match Point Eligible teams used to be, either. However, the discussions surrounding Match Point seem to have moved on, and players are recognising that the system is the most exciting way to watch the esport for viewers, even if it relies heavily on RNG for players. The discussion has turned to prize pools, and how third-placed Gambit earned just $25,000 compared to NEW’s $100,000, despite earning 23 more points over the tournament.
Konstantin ‘Hardecki’ Kozlov, one of the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:best players in the world and the IGL of Gambit, took third place particularly badly and launched into a diatribe on Twitter, going to war with the entire country of Portugal and writing some regrettable sentiments that have since been deleted. If we learned one thing from Playoffs, it’s that 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Apex Legends esports is at its worst when players are warring on Twitter, and at its best when they’ve got a Flatline in their hands and are juking it ✨out on World’s ꧒Edge.
As I suggested in my Match Point deep dive, awarding a ~🗹$50,000 bonus to the winning team - or a bonus for the team with the most points - and reshuffling the prize pools to be more evenly distributed would work well with the Match Point format. Consistency would be rewarded with a prize equivalent to your place on the overall leaderb𓆉oard, with a major boost given to the team that wins when on Match Point. I can’t help but feel this won’t come into effect this season, but it’s something that EA needs to think about before Year 3 of the ALGS.
Before we get too far ahead of ourselves, however, what does this mean for Split 2? The winning teams from the past two weekends’ action have practically qualified for the Split 2 Playoffs already, so we’ll see how hard they try in the regular season. This may allow some of the mid-tier teams to shine. Some squads - most notably 100 Thieves and SCARZ EU - need to get their heads down and work hard. Mikkel ‘Mande’ Hestbek has already suggested that SCARZ will p꧃lay a more meta team composition in Split 2, but you’d think some serious scrims would help their case too - although they won the ALGS Championship with only light scrims, so perhaps that’s not the case.
Apex Legends Season 12 could shake up the ALGS meta considerably, and crucially drops before Split 2 begins. A Gibraltar nerf would be the biggest bombshell developer Respawn could drop, but a long-awaited buff for Crypto could send EMEA into a drone-filled meltdown. Wattson’s buff this season didn’t bring her back into the meta, though, so perhaps we’ll be safe from the eye i🍸n the sky for the time being.
