Everything to know about ALGS Year 5 Championship

Electronic Arts has revealed more details surrounding the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Year 5 Championship ,taking place in Sapporo, Japan.

The season-ending event will see the top 40 international teams compete from January 15th to 18th, to be crowned this season’s champion.

From format and schedule to livestream details, here is everything there is to know about the upcoming Apex Legends tournament, 2026 ALGS Championship.

The tournament begins with all 40 teams competing in the Group Stage, featuring a round-robin format. Teams are seeded into groups of ten based on the Championship Point standings and will battle against one another in a single six-match series. 

Following the results of the Group Stage, teams will be placed into either the winners’ or the losers’ brackets. Each roster will play a single match series, with the top 10 from each bracket advancing to the Match Point Finals. 

The finals will take place on the last day of the ALGS Championship. A match point system will take effect, where the first team to secure a battle royale win after reaching the 50-point requirement from previous games will be declared the winner.

Tickets were previously available for the LAN event in Sapporo, Japan; however, those who couldn’t grab them can catch all the action live on the official Apex Legends Twitch and YouTube. There is also FACEIT Watch, which grants multi-view options, including the main broadcast and access to live team comms.

Tuning in to the ALGS Year 5 Championship on Twitch will also allow viewers to earn a variety of Twitch Drops. A new in-game cosmetic item can be unlocked each day by watching 30 minutes of the livestream.

In addition to the 22 official casters, there will also be several watch parties commentating as the esports tournament unravels, featuring top Apex Legends creators. There will be five watch parties in total for English, Japanese and Chinese audiences.

Creators include Jack ‘NiceWigg‘ Martin and Athanasios ‘Greek‘ Alestas for English, Vtuber ‘Restiafps‘ for Chinese, and Yuji ‘YUKIO‘ Okano and Yusuke ‘assiikun‘ Ashiwa for Japanese.

The ALGS Championship will feature four maps following a rotation back in November 2025, including Storm Point, E-District, World’s Edge, and the reworked Olympus.

Teams will compete in a dedicated build of the game developed by Respawn Entertainment, which will have some but not all of the changes introduced in the most recent balance patch.

This year’s cross-regional championship will feature a $2m (~£1.48m) prize pool. The champion will earn $600,000 (~£447,240), runner-up will receive $300,000 (~£223,650), and the third-place team will take home $200,000 (~£149,080).