The first match of this year’s ALGS Championship opens to a polite smattering of applause. The crowd in Sapporo, Japan comes across as refined, more akin to an audience at the opera than an esports event. By the end of that match, however, local team Fnatic have clutched victory and the crowd, a sudden sea of orange jerseys, erupts. It’s like reading from a script.
Apex Legends is huge in Japan, and the ALGS has risen to meet the country’s lofty expectations. This is the busiest I’ve ever seen the first day of an Apex tournament, and it’s only going to get busier, and more raucous.
“It really is amazing to see the turnout that we have at this event,” says Jasmine Chiang, Apex Legends esports’ global brand marketing lead. “And I hope you see the difference from this event to previous events; the leveled-up experience that we were going for.”
Everything here seems bigger and better. The Daiwa House Premist Dome can seat over 40,000 spectators and, while the ALGS Championship has dedicated around half of this space to its fan zone and the enormous stage upon which 60 players at a time compete, they expect 30,000 people to attend the five-day event.
Aside from the sheer size of the Dome and the passion of the local fans, Chiang and her team are ‘levelling up’ the experience in every other manner imaginable. There’s more merch, there are more cosplayers, and there are 60 high-spec gaming PCs for fans to face off against each other if all the action gets them pumped to play. Queues for the Fnatic and official ALGS merch stands weave between giant inflatable Nessies.
Artists are carving three ice sculptures as you enter the arena, which will be finished by Saturday when Japanese alt metal band SiM will open the weekend’s action with a live rendition of the song they wrote for the event, appropriately named Champions. In the Arena’s rafters, an observatory has been transformed into a real-life Mirage Voyage.
This feels like the biggest, most impressive Apex Legends esports event yet, and it’s only Wednesday. I can’t imagine what the weekend will bring, but with promises of live music and an opening ceremony that Chiang assures me will “blow everyone’s socks off”, the fans in the arena are in for a treat.
“It was probably one of the most challenging projects to pull together because of all the moving pieces,” Chiang says of the opening ceremony. “And I really am trying so hard not to spoil anything. But again, don’t schedule [anything] during that time, because you’re going to want to see it.”
But the most impressive part for me is that this is the first time that competitive Apex Legends has really embodied the global series it purports to be. Year 4’s three LANs have occurred in three different continents for the first time, from Los Angeles to Sapporo via Mannheim. Chiang says she “absolutely” wants to continue to take the ALGS across the world in the future, but refuses to give me even a hint of any cities she’d like to see the tournament arrive in next.
“I want as many Apex fans as possible to be able to experience an ALGS,” she says. “I feel like it’s a core memory experience for people in our community.”
Sapporo seems to be setting a new bar for ALGS competitions. Players and fans alike have wanted the tournament to come to Japan since its inception thanks to the Japanese community’s intense passion and how the country has embraced this battle royale. Now that it’s finally here, the ALGS has matched the crowd’s energy and promises to deliver the best tournament experience to date.
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