Apex Legends Global Series: Match Point Explained
If you’re new to Apex Legends Esports you’ll quickly realize how points are earned and how teams both qualify and increase their placement is a lot different from other esports. While most competitive games feature two teams playing each other at once in a round-robin, single or double-elimination bracket, battle royales have to take a different route. For the Apex Legends Global Series the rules revolve around a match point format.
What is Match Point?
The term isn’t anything new to sports and is most commonly heard in tennis. In the ALGS in order to win any of the major tournaments (Playoffs, Championships, etc.) a team must first attain match-point status by earning 50 points. Once they’ve hit 50 points or higher, they become match point eligible.
Once a team has earned match point eligibility all they need to do is take first place in a match and they win. So getting to match point doesn’t guarantee you a win, in all likelihood multiple teams will reach match point eligibility before a champion is decided.
When a team reaches match point, you’ll sometimes see their playstyle change. Some teams will play more passively and defensively since more kills doesn’t give them any advantage (outside of better loot to survive longer). This isn’t always true and we’ve seen teams on match point continue to dominate and slay in matches.
Being on match point also puts a target on your back, though there’s no definitive way to tell who the teams in a lobby are beyond their team composition or if they’re known for using a specific skin. The ALGS plays on anonymous mode, so when players are knocked or killed, the rest of the lobby doesn’t know they are.
How do Teams get Match Point?
Getting to match point is simple and straightforward, the more kills you get and the higher you place the more points you get. In the Apex Legends Pro League, where match points aren't used until the finals, every game day the teams play 6 games. 3 maps on World’s Edge and 2 maps on Storm Point.
During match point tournaments, however, they only play the number of games required until match point is earned and a champion is crowned. That could be exactly six games, it could be fewer, but in some cases they’ll play more than 6 games as well.
For every kill scored the team gets one point, regardless of what place they come in. And for points for placement are as follows.
Placement | Points |
|---|---|
1st | 12 |
2nd | 9 |
3rd | 7 |
4th | 5 |
5th | 4 |
6th-7th | 3 |
8th-10th | 2 |
11th-15th | 1 |
16th-20th | 0 |
Apex Pro League
In non-finals tournaments or leagues such as the Apex Pro League, the points scored are the same. With those points being tallied at the end of the day to determine your current rank. On these days teams play a six-game series and the highest-scoring teams go on to the finals for said league, with their placements often earning them some bonus points for the next tournaments.
Where and when to watch the ALGS
The ALGS Pro League continues every weekend on Saturday and Sunday until the end of May. Tune in on the official Apex Legends Twitch and YouTube Channel. And for all your questions about how the Apex Legends Global Series Pro League works, check out our summary here.
The ALGS: 2023 Split 2 Playoffs will take place on July 13th-16th in-person in London with a total prize pool of $1,000,000.
