ALGS To Fund Travel To Stockholm Major Following Backlash
As Apex Legends esports eyes a return to live events after skyrocketing in popularity over the last year, Respawn Entertainment may have not expected their title to become so popular on a global scale. However, after reaching every corner of the globe, the upcoming Apex Legends Global Series Major in Stockholm has proved quite the attraction for competitors all over the world.
Having seen representatives from Australia, Iraq, Chile, Mexico, Korea, and other countries in more renowned esports territories like Europe, all qualify for the ALGS Stockholm LAN, many of the teams faced huge costs to simply attend the competition.
Unlike most other developers who opt to arrange and fund all travel expenses to their chosen host city, Respawn Entertainment originally opted to not support all the qualified teams, sparking a mass outrage from fans, esport personalities, and qualified organisations.
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Apex Legends Teams Faced Huge Travel Woes After Qualifying For $1,000,000 Stockholm LAN
With Respawn Entertainment being an arm of the monied EA Sports family, fans were left stunned as representatives from Brazil and Mexico took to social media to plea for sponsors to help fund the trip after the devs turned a blind eye.
The official rules by EA (before yesterday's amendments), stated that the developers will provide travel expenses only for the top five teams in APAC North, EMEA and NA, and the top two teams in APAC South and SAM, leaving over half of the qualified squads needing to fund their own way to Stockholm - not exactly pocket change for those coming from minor regions.
With many squads approximating that the cost of attending will be $7,000, and the prize pool indicating that only the top 20 rosters will earn that sum in prize money, teams took to Twitter to organise help.
Jackes "Stalizy" Cardoso, from Brazillian organisation Xen, took to Twitter to call EA clowns, in emoji form, after a range of teams and players helped fund their travel. The player admitted that Complexity and content creators, including 100 Thieves' Jack "NiceWigg" Martin and NRG's Tanner "Rogue" Trebb, all pitched in to donate $6,950 to fund Xen's three players' dreams. "The true Apex Legends," Stalizy said on Twitter.
NRG also stumped up the entire amount for Mexican side SCRY, with the NA giants paying for the hotel and flights for their roster and coach; this wasn't the extent of the help either, as a range of the biggest names and orgs in Apex Legends scrambled to get the world's top players to the stage they deserved.
EA Reverse Funding Decisions To Back ALL ALGS Teams
The multi-billion-dollar developing behemoths were soon bombarded with pleas from icons such as Shivam "ShivFPS" Patel and Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen, with the latter saying, "this is a complete joke." Adding, "Be better and cover all the teams that have qualified."
After the outrage from the community, EA soon took to Twitter to amend their rules.
"We've heard your feedback regarding travel. As a result, we’ve made the decision to cover travel expenses for all starting players participating at live events for the remainder of Year 2," the developers said on Twitter.
The devs have yet to amend the official rulebook with this statement, although teams have now received confirmation of the ruling and can go about refunding the donations given to them by their benefactors.
The ALGS Stockholm Major will kick off on May 29, the first international event in Apex Legends for over two years.
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