Evgenii "Gufis" Kondratev This weekend was a special one for Apex Legends fans. A new world champion was crowned in Sapporo, Japan, and Respawn also shared its plans for the upcoming esports season.
Let’s start with the tournament itself. At its peak, the event drew over half a million viewers—an impressive number, especially considering the inconvenient time zone for audiences in Europe and the Americas. The matches were intense as well. Alliance held the lead for most of the final but failed to capitalize on their match points. Meanwhile, GoNext Esports only reached match point eligibility in the eighth game but secured victory in the ninth, lifting the championship trophy!
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Respawn also revealed some intriguing plans for the 2025 competitive season. The developer is allocating $5 million in total prize money, with $2 million set aside for the World Championship. One of the most notable changes is the introduction of a ban system. Since banning champions in a 20-team lobby would be chaotic, Respawn came up with a unique solution: the most-picked legend on the map will be banned for the remainder of the match. If an entire role ends up banned, the legend with the oldest ban will be reintroduced into the pool. This system is designed to encourage teams to experiment with different compositions.
Despite Apex Legends facing its fair share of challenges, its esports ecosystem seems to be in good shape—at least for 2025.
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