Apex Legends had a tremendous launch earlier this year, and garnered attention from battle royale fans for its diverse cast of heroes with unique abilities and skillset. Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment organized the Apex Legends Preseason Invitational, one of the title's first official esports tournaments which hosted a $500 Thousand Dollars prize pool. Viewership was relatively disappointing, showing numbers lower than Hearthstone's competitive scene and Overwatch League. However, the studio knows they have to believe in themselves for the audience to put in the effort, and they are doing just that for 2020.
Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment officially announced the first international multi-tournament esports program, Apex Legends Global Series, spread across 12 global live events with more than $3 Million prize money up for grabs in total. Head of Respawn Entertainment Vince Zampella expressed the studio's commitment to growing the esports scene, and their belief in the competitive scene to drive the game forward.
"Competition is at the heart of Apex Legends. We expect that esports will play a big role in the future of Apex Legends and it all starts here, with the Apex Legends Global Series. We look forward to seeing who, out of our millions of players, will become true legends of the arena.”
The press release went into more detail into the point system, which will adopt September's Apex Legends Preseason Invitational Match Point format. For clarification, this allows teams to accumulate points from both placements and kills throughout their matches in the Finals stage. Everything will kick off on January 25, 2020, with registration opening in early January. Players who earn enough points warrant themselves an invitation to the first Major on March 13-15, 2020 held at Esports Stadium Arlington in Arlington, Texas.
The first three Majors will each feature 100 three-player squads from around the world. The fourth Major, the Apex Legends Global Series Championship, is the grand finale. Only the top 60 Apex Legends Global Series teams in the world will be invited to battle for $1 million in prizes and the title of Apex Legends Global Series World Champion.
EA and Respawn are kicking off 2020 with a strong showing of support for Apex Legends, and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down.
