Listen to the audio version of this article (generated by AI).
Japan’s first official Apex Legends LAN, ALGS Championship Japan, delivered a wholly unpredictable tournament, where EMEA underdogs GoNext Esports emerged with a shocking win for the region.
The team slipped through Winner’s Bracket relatively unnoticed, with only one win buried amongst mostly average game results. However, the match point finals allowed them to break through the North American talent wall and emerge on top, winning in Game 9.
GoNext’s underdog story is not in isolation, with many teams performing unexpectedly in the dramatic conclusion to ALGS Year 4.
UK fighting games legend Ryan Hart, one of the 2025 ALGS Championship broadcast talent members, interviewed the winners below:
It means everything.
— Apex Legends Esports (@PlayApexEsports) February 2, 2025
No words can describe this moment. @GoNextEsports @HiarkaYeahh @UxakoTTV @lzhidann pic.twitter.com/fZbNkZYUBs
Adding to the buzz, EA has also announced sweeping changes to hit the ALGS format for Year 5, aiming to improve the competitive and viewer experience.
The following are Esports News UK’s key takeaways from the ALGS Championship:
Don’t underestimate EMEA at ALGS Championship Japan
North America has long stood tall as the dominant region in competitive Apex Legends, rarely challenged and less likely toppled. ALGS titles have only gone to non-NA teams once since 2022, when APAC-North team Reject Winnity won the Year 4 Split 1 Playoffs in Los Angeles.
However, EMEA has begun noticeably challenging North American supremacy, starting with Alliance winning the Apex Legends Esports World Cup Tournament in the summer of 2024 and advancing with GoNext’s win in Japan. Alliance also came within a hair’s breadth of taking the Championship title, ending the tournament in second place with the highest points in the lobby.
Another high-performing EMEA team in the Championship was the UK’s Noctem Esports, who launched two years ago. Despite finishing 18th in the final after a string of challenging games, the team performed incredibly well through the Group and Bracket Stages of the competition.
ALGS casters quickly pointed out their breakthrough performance and impressive back-to-back wins.
The team achieved the most kills in the Group Stage, tied with London-headquartered organisation Fnatic, and won the Group A vs C and A vs B series back-to-back.
The Year 4 Championship may not have been theirs to win, but they stand in good stead to bring the heat in Year 5.
Unfortunately, the UK’s representation in other teams fared no better than Noctem in the finals, with Slayers and Feuda (Exo Clan) and Blasts (GaminGladiators) also finishing in the bottom 15 on the leaderboard.
Org-wise, Fnatic finished 10th in the finals and Guild 12th.
You can see more of the UK talent and teams that took part in the 2025 ALGS Championship here.
Are the kings of Apex kings no more?
ALGS Championship Japan saw the rise of many underdog teams and the fall of several past Apex icons. Several traditionally dominant teams fell far shorter of the title than expected, some even missing out on the Match Point Final.
The first elimination bracket brought the shock elimination of NRG and Ninjas in Pyjamas, forcing FunFPs, Nocturnal, and Gnaske to wave their chances of winning goodbye. All three players were once considered some of the best in the game but could not perform in the current meta.
The elimination of Ninjas in Pyjamas also saw the departure of Zaine and Amphy, two of the UK’s representatives at the event.
Elimination Bracket 2 caused further upset, forcing 100 Thieves and Cloud 9 to leave the competition. Genburten, iiTzTimmy, and Dezignful missed out on a spot in thefinals by only one point.
Even in the final, prominent teams such as TSM and newly relaunched Envy could not reach the match point, and they had to settle for a bottom-10 finish in the tournament.
Post-tournament, TSM have already released their coach, Talmadge, kickstarting the roster-swapping off-season.
Even the UK’s only Championship title holder, Jmw (currently playing for Faze Clan) was not able to qualify for the Match Point Final, dropping out in the second Elimination Bracket at 29th overall.
In fact, despite being the fourth most-represented region at the Championship with 13 players, no UK players could break into the top ten.
Most influential players – the ALGS hard hitters
Although Falcons have been gleefully celebrating ImperialHal’s position as having the most kills in the tournament, the Apex CEO is not, in fact, one of the hardest hitters in the tournament.
His kill stats may be high, but these are skewed by the fact that Team Falcons dropped down to the Elimination 2 Bracket after failing to reach the top 10 in Winner’s Bracket, forcing them to play an extra set of games compared to the likes of GoNext, Alliance, or TSM.
In the Match Point Final, ImperialHal finished 6th in kill stats, with Alliance’s Effect taking the top spot for EMEA with 21 kills to Hal’s 15. Effect has long been one of the most influential fraggers in Apex, and his skills were critical to Alliance gaining the most points in the Finals lobby.
With the Bracket Stages being a skewed perspective on kill statistics due to differing numbers of games played, the most successful players can be found by comparing the Group Stage and Finals statistics.
Effect (Alliance, EMEA) and Verhulst (TSM, NA) hit the top five for kill stats in both the groups and finals, showing greater consistency in their ability to hit eliminations in high numbers.
EA overhauls ALGS format for Year 5
With 33,000 tickets sold for Japan’s Championship, the ALGS continues to grow its LAN audiences. With this and the inclusion of more teams in LAN opportunities in mind, EA has launched a revised LAN schedule for Year 5.
Alongside this, it is launching significant changes to how their LAN tournaments are played – most importantly, changes to map rotation and Legend picks.
The ALGS Open
Instead of two Playoffs tournaments during the year, there will be one Midseason Playoffs, the end-of-year Championship, and one ALGS Open.
The ALGS Open will feature a record-breaking 180 participating teams. This comprises all 120 Pro League teams and 40 additional teams that will gain their place via Pro League Qualifiers. $1m is available in the prize pool and will be distributed amongst the top 40 teams in the tournament.
Map Rotation – Broken Moon
Japan’s Championship saw E-District launched into rotation for the first time at a LAN tournament, supplementing the traditional use of World’s Edge and Storm Point. In Year 5, a fourth map will be added to competitive rotation – Broken Moon.
EA has clarified that Broken Moon and E-District will NOT be used in the pre-season qualifier tournaments, to allow players more time to adjust to these in competitive rotation.
Legend Banning
The most significant change to the ALGS in Year 5 is the introduction of Legend Banning. At the start of each set of games (for example, the start of an elimination bracket), all Legends will be available for selection.
However, the most picked Legend in the first game (for example, Newcastle) will be removed from the selection pool for the remainder of the set.
Legends will only be re-added to the game if all Legends from one class are banned. If this is the case, the Legend in that class that has been banned for the longest will be re-added.
With a fresh format and continued rise of non-NA teams, who knows what Year 5 of the ALGS will bring?
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
