The postponed ALGS North American Regional Final has just been held off-broadcast and unannounced to prevent further disruption and protect players. TSM won the surprise five-game final this evening, toppling the leaderboard with 80 points, while XSet and OpTic Gaming missed the Split One Playoff qualification threshold.
Destroyer2009’s now infamous ALGS hacks, which planted cheats on pros Genburten and ImperialHal, brought the original March 18 Regional Final to an abrupt end. Many expected a public replay to be hosted soon, but on March 25 eagle-eyed ALGS fans noticed none of NA’s Apex Legends pro players were streaming. In fact, all were listed as being in a “custom lobby” on the website “Apex Legends Status.” Immediately, speculation was rife that the games were being played secretly, guarded from the public eye.
Suspicions were confirmed after results began uploading to Apex Legends Status in real-time, with the match scores eventually confirming which Apex lineups will now be attending the ALGS Split One Playoffs in LA from May 2 to 6.
In familiar TSM style, the victorious team did not actually win a game until their Match Point victory in game five; their highest placement from games one to four was second. However, on points-per-game, they were able to consistently scale, becoming the first team to hit the Match Point threshold.
The more eventful changes happened towards the middle of the regular split leaderboard, where several teams needed consistent Regional Final performances to secure their place at the Split One Playoffs in L.A. POI contests with Ape Gang left XSET struggling to accumulate points, eventually resulting in a heartbreaking 13th place ending for their overall Split One run.
Also missing out on LAN is OpTic. The roster displayed impressive finesse and dominance during the Year Three Championship, which was the most recent ALGS LAN, but were unable to accumulate enough points to push past 14th this time around.
Now that the NA Regional Final has concluded, the full list of teams for the 2024 ALGS Split One Playoffs has been confirmed. Joining from North America will be DarkZero, Moist Esports, TSM, Legacy (former Luminosity Gaming roster), Disguised, Elev8Gaming, Spacestation Gaming, Luminosity Gaming, Complexity, Furia, Cloud9, and Oxygen Esports.
Despite the NA Regional Final being held offline, an official broadcast has been recorded, which ImperialHal confirmed will be released on March 26. Several participating players have confirmed they will be holding watch parties for the broadcast. Regular ALGS B-Stream host, NiceWigg, will also be holding a watch party when the recording goes live.
Although the NA Regional Final did not remain a secret for long, EA’s operation to avoid disruption appears to have been a quiet success. However, they should never underestimate the sleuthing powers of the Apex Legends community.
