The ALGS Championship made me fall in love with esports

Generally speaking, I’m not much of an esports person. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy seeing players pull off wild feats in video games, and you can often find me watching record-winning speedrun compilations on YouTube. I love playing video games, and love watching others play them, too. But for as long as I can remember, the idea of buying overpriced team merch and expensive tickets just to spend hours watching people use computers intensely was a concept I found baffling. But after spending a week in Sapporo, Japan for the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Year 5 Championship, I can safely say I get it now.

When I first arrived at the Sapporo Dome, the 30,000-seat stadium had been split in half. On one side was the ALGS Fan Zone, where attendees could buy Apex Legends merch, team gear, and food. The other half of the stadium housed the main stage, where competitors played matches in front of a live audience. There weren’t too many people in the stands on day one of the four-day event, but there were plenty of folks in the Fan Zone shelling out for team merch, and a group of Fnatic fans (a UK-based team) had already set up shop in the front row, waving LED lightsticks in the shape of their team’s logo, with massive banners draped over the edge of the stands.

Image: Claire Lewis/Polygon

My main reason for attending ALGS was to catch up with one of Apex’s most famous esports athletes, Philip “ImperialHal” Dosen, the in-game leader (IGL) of Team Falcons. I first met Dosen back in December during the far more relaxed Red Bull Legends Inn competition. But at ALGS, things got dramatic almost immediately. Just 12 hours before the competition started in earnest, Dosen’s controller was banned due to macros that couldn’t be disabled, and concerns that its wireless features could leave it vulnerable to being hacked. After that, Dosen understandably turned down interviews to focus on the competition.

The controller disqualification was a nightmare scenario for Dosen and his teammates — players are very attached to their controllers, and competing at ALGS with a different one was like attempting the Tour de France using someone else’s bike. But Dosen made it through, and despite not having access to his preferred peripheral, his team ended the first two days of the competition at the top of the charts, with Team Falcons favored to win the Championship. Even better, Dosen’s controller was unbanned right before the fourth and final day of the competition. After such a rocky start, I was captivated to see if they could pull this off. The odds were in his favor. Like Babe Ruth pointing to the outfield before hitting a home run, Dosen himself predicted Team Falcons would win in a speedy seven matches.

Image: Claire Lewis/Polygon

He was almost right. Falcons dominated during the first half of championship day, but after a surprisingly early elimination during the third match, the team’s morale visibly plummeted, and things only got worse when it happened again during match seven. Dosen’s squad was one of three teams remaining in the ring, and they had the high ground. A win would have won Falcons the championship, but it slipped through Dosen’s fingers in a messy final-ring fight that led to Dosen later stating, “We all fucked it up.” Two matches later, underdog Canadian team Oblivion — an unsigned trio with a member who had recently come out of retirement — clinched the win, marking the first time a female-coached team has ever won the ALGS Championship. Oblivion’s win also marked the first ALGS Championship win by a team that had only made the cut during the Last-Chance Qualifers (LQC). LCQ matches take place just two months before the Championship, and see 40 teams who haven’t yet qualified face off for a last-second chance to get on the roster for the Super Bowl of Apex Legends. Oblivion had plenty of talent, but had far fewer funds and far less time to prepare than the majority of their opponents, making their win even more jaw-dropping.

The stands were full, with nearly 15,000 attendees all screaming at the top of their lungs. I was one of them. Tears were shed. Oblivion’s players all reacted with palpable glee: Bowen “Monsoon” Fuller’s jaw fell open in disbelief as he dropped to the floor in shock, Miguel “Blinkzr” Quiles jumped on the desk at his team’s battlestation (sans shoes) fist-pumping the air, and Brandon “FunFPS” Groombridge pulled coach RubyKaster into a hug. The moment — and the incredible gameplay that led up to it — was nothing short of magical. ImperialHal perhaps described it best, calling the win an “absolute Cinderella story.”

Image: Claire Lewis/Polygon

As I watched the Oblivion squad and their coach raise the enormous ALGS trophy above their heads, I suddenly understood why people attend esports competitions. The thrill, the tension, the joy — all of it was contagious. So while you’re unlikely to ever see me standing in line for pricey team merch or hounding players for an autograph, I can absolutely see why many esports fans do just that. I arrived at ALGS as a journalist seeking a story, but I left the championship as a genuine fan of Blinkzr, Monsoon, FunFPS, and RubyKaster, because their performance and their journey to the trophy were nothing short of legendary.