EA and Respawn are bringing ALGS Sapporo for two additional Japanese Championships. The popular location for the Year 4 Championship in January 2025 will also host the Year 5 and Year 6 LAN events.
Dates for the Year 5 Championship have also been revealed.
The journey back to ALGS Sapporo
In January 2025, the Sapporo-hosted ALGS Championship drew more than 34,000 in-person attendees, breaking records for Apex Legends viewership.
The event’s success has prompted EA and Respawn to sign a multi-year deal with the City of Sapporo to return to the Daiwa House PREMIST DOME.
Head of Esports at EA, Monica Dinsmore, signed the agreement directly with the Mayor of Sapporo City, Katshurio Akimoto.
Fans, esports pros, and streaming talent alike are overwhelmingly supporting the move, particularly with appreciation for the city and crowd experienced in the most recent Championship.
Shahin Kanafchian, Head of Partnerships for EA and Respawn, has even likened Sapporo to the relationship the Counter-Strike community once held for Katowice before the venue was exchanged for Krakow earlier this year.
In their announcement, EA and Respawn also confirmed the dates for the next ALGS Championship. Year 5 of the ALGS will conclude at the Daiwa House PREMIST DOME from January 15th to 18th, 2026.
They have also confirmed that the Year 6 Championship will conclude in “Winter 2027”
Bridging the off-season – a return of the BLGS?
The Year 4 Championship in Sapporo was the first to feature a long break between LAN tournaments. The previous tournament in Mannheim took place in September 2024.
Confirmation of the Year 5 Championship taking place in January 2026 means there will be another extended off-season.
The ALGS Midseason Playoffs are scheduled to take place in July 2025, leaving almost a six-month gap between the two professional LANs. The online Split 2 regular season is scheduled to run from August to October 2025. Therefore, there are over two months with no ALGS event scheduled.
Fans will likely look to popular Apex Legends streamers and ALGS broadcast collaborators, Jack ‘NiceWigg’ Martin and Athanasios ‘Greek’ Alestas, to fill this gap.
In October, November, and December 2024, the dynamic casting duo ran the “BLGS.” The series was an online open tournament spanning the four competitive regions.
Broadcast on both their personal channels and the official PlayApex broadcast, and run in official partnership with EA and Respawn, content continued while the ALGS prepared for the Championship.
The tournament proved popular, particularly due to participation from less-established teams and amateurs who played alongside professional rosters.
Official clarification is pending on how the gap between the ALGS Midseason Playoffs and ALGS Sapporo 2026 will be filled. However, the BLGS would undoubtedly be a fan-favourite scenario.
EA release ticket information for ALGS Sapporo 2026 in the upcoming weeks.
Hannah is a writer specialising in the esports, gaming, and technology sectors. Working for outlets such as Dot Esports, Esports Insider, and of course ENUK, she has developed a love for wider esports and Apex Legends, although it may never surpass her drive to passionately beat her friends in every game of Mariokart. You may have seen her at various esports and gaming events, including ESI London, EGX, Discover: Esports and many League of Legends watch parties.
