Electronic Arts and Respawn Entertainment have teamed up to create the first-ever Apex Legends Preseason Invitational. The esports tournament will take place in Krakow, Poland from 13 to 15 September 2019, and it will feature 80 teams from around the world competing for the $500,000 grand prize.
From Los Angeles to Krakow
It’s the one of the first major competitions that has been organised for the popular battle royale title, and the announcement was made via the official Apex Legends Twitter channel.
The event will follow on from an Apex Legends tournament that takes place at the X Games in Los Angeles on 2 and 3 August. This will feature a combination of invited teams and gamers from the qualifying rounds that were held in June.
Gamers are invited to try their luck against the world’s best Apex Legends players by signing up for the Invitational at the official page on the EA site. There is a $150 registration fee, and gamers will be required to be at least 16 years of age. After all of the submissions have been processed Respawn will then invite a total of 240 gamers to make an appearance in Krakow.
More about the format
Once the Apex Legends Invitational kicks off, it will feature a double-elimination format. This will see the 80 teams starting out in a winners’ section, and then they have to play to win and avoid failing into the losers’ bracket. Only the final remaining 20 teams will get to compete in the grand final match on 15 August.
It’s a big move for Respawn to make sure that Apex Legends becomes a hit in the competitive gaming realm. The EXP Pro-am competition in July proved to be a massive success, and with the X-Games event and the upcoming Invitational, it seems that esports is set to be a big part of the future for Apex Legends.
However, all of these tournaments are just part of the Apex Legends preseason schedule. At the moment there is little indication about what EA and Respawn are going to do to introduce the games first-ever competitive schedule.
Much will depend on the success of the Apex Legends Invitational event, and there have been reports that a fully regulated tournament that mirrors the likes of the Overwatch League could be an option for the battle royale title.
All eyes will have certainly been on the recent Fortnite World Cup. This tournament created many headlines all over the world for the fact that a teenager managed to win a healthy share of the $30 million prize pool. The prize pool of the Apex Legends Invitational clearly suffers in comparison, but it’s important to remember that this battle royale game has been with us for only half a year.
Whilst many were critical of the fact that yet another battle royale game was about to be unleashed, the sheer excellence of Apex Legends proved the doubters wrong. And with the first major invitational for Apex Legends coming later this month, it seems that this battle royale is going from strength to strength.
