ALGS Online Open 2026 names its official watch parties in four regions

The Apex Legends Global Series opens its sixth year today with a field of official watch parties beside the main broadcast. Electronic Arts revealed the hosts on February 27, Esports Insider reported, ahead of the ALGS Online Open, the online qualifiers that start on February 28.

Nine people and organizations will carry the competition on their own channels, two streams in each of the circuit's four regions: Americas, EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), APAC North and APAC South. The list mixes streamers with people and groups from the competitive side of the scene: casters, a team coach, a tournament organizer and a fan-run community hub.

Electronic Arts announcement of the ALGS Online Open 2026 watch parties, as reported by Esports Insider on February 27, 2026.

Who will host the streams

A watch party is a stream run by an approved host that shows the competition with its own commentary and its own community, beside the official broadcast. For the Online Open, the hosts are spread evenly: two streams in each of the four competitive regions.

In the Americas, NiceWigg and Greek run a joint broadcast. Esports Insider describes both as co-streamers of the ALGS Year 5 Championship, the event that closed the previous season. The second Americas stream belongs to Valekhan, a Twitch partner, meaning a streamer whose channel the platform has admitted to its partner program.

In EMEA, the hosts are oraxe, a retired French caster and player, and Berbatow, an Apex Legends streamer.

APAC North pairs a coach with an organizer. assiikun is the Apex Legends coach of RIDDLE, a team that competes in the region, and ESCL is a tournament organizer. APAC South gives one stream to PMKz, a Thai caster, and the other to Battlegrounds HQ, a community hub created by fans.

Five of the eight streams come from hosts described by a role in the scene rather than as streamers: two casters, one of them retired, a coach, an organizer and a fan hub. Only the Americas list is made up entirely of streamers, and two of its three hosts already co-streamed the Year 5 Championship.

What the Online Open is

The Online Open is the new name of what the series called the Preseason Qualifiers until last year. It is a set of online qualifiers, played region by region, that decides who joins the invited teams in the Pro League, the season-long league at the center of the circuit.

The event runs over four weekends:

1. February 28 to March 2;
2. March 7 to 9;
3. March 14 to 16;
4. March 21 to 23.

Registration was open on the series website, Dot Esports reported in January, and the event keeps the open format of the earlier qualifiers: any team that registers in its region can try its luck. Dot Esports noted that this open competition format has been part of the series since it began.

Scoring follows the usual battle royale logic. Apex Legends is a battle royale: many squads drop into the same match and are eliminated one by one until a single squad is left. In the Online Open, according to Esports Insider, the last squad standing earns 12 points, and every elimination a team scores adds one point. A team can therefore climb the standings by surviving long, by fighting well, or both.

How the qualifiers feed the Pro League

The Pro League holds 30 teams in each of the four regions, Dot Esports reported when the Year 6 calendar was published. Twenty-two teams per region are invited on the strength of earlier results. The other eight places in each region are decided by the Online Open.

The winner of each regional qualifier earns direct entry to Split 1 of the Pro League. Points from every weekend also go into an overall tally, and the next four teams of each region in that tally qualify too. Dot Esports describes those four places as earned on consistent results. A team can therefore reach the Pro League in two ways: by winning a regional qualifier outright, or by finishing high in the overall tally without a win.

The Pro League matters well beyond its own split. Esports Insider points out that it is the path a team needs to reach the ALGS Championship, and the first place in the season where teams can earn Championship Points, the ranking points that decide most of the places at the season's last event.

The season the watch parties open

Electronic Arts set out the Year 6 calendar in January. Esports Insider and Dot Esports both reported a prize pool of US$7 million across the season, which Dot Esports put at US$1 million more than the previous year, with three international LAN events, played in person, each worth US$2 million.

Split 1 of the Pro League starts on April 4 and 5, according to Dot Esports. Each split is played as a triple round-robin, meaning the regular season brings the same groups of teams together three times, followed by Match-Point Regional Finals in each region.

The Split 1 Playoffs move the series onto the Esports World Cup in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from July 7 to 11, with 40 teams. Dot Esports describes a five-day event where those teams play for US$2 million in prize money and for Championship Points. VK Gaming, champions of the Year 5 Midseason Playoffs, receive an automatic invitation, Dot Esports reported. The Split 2 Playoffs follow at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, from October 29 to November 1. Esports Insider describes them as the last chance to earn Championship Points.

The ALGS Championship returns to Sapporo, Japan, for a third year in a row. Dot Esports gives the venue as the Daiwa House Premist Dome and the dates as January 28 to 31, 2027. Thirty-two of the 40 places are earned through Championship Points. The last eight come from a Last Chance Qualifier in November 2026, where the top two teams of each region qualify. Esports Insider adds that this qualifier is open to teams of the Challenger Circuit as well as Pro League sides.

New rules teams take into the season

Esports Insider reported two rule changes for Year 6 that concern how teams manage their rosters.

The first is the transfer window. Each split has a single window, which opens after Match Day 6. Esports Insider reports that the aim is greater roster stability and clearer team identities for fans.

The second is a condition on Championship Points, which applies to every player of the Pro League.

The Challenger Circuit also changes. It is played through four open qualifier weekends per split, Dot Esports reported, and the Legend Bans rule expands to it in Year 6. Winners of the online Split 1 Challenger events earn a direct spot in the qualifier for Split 2 of the Pro League, where the best Challenger teams face the bottom eight Pro League sides, according to Esports Insider.

What the announcement covers

The list announced by Electronic Arts concerns the Online Open. Esports Insider describes the nine hosts as creators, casters and channels, and the APAC North pair puts the coach of a competing team, RIDDLE's assiikun, and a tournament organizer, ESCL, on the same list as streamers elsewhere.

The announcement reported by Esports Insider gives no prize money for the Online Open, and no language or platform for each stream beyond Valekhan's status as a Twitch partner. What it sets is who carries the qualifiers outside the main broadcast, region by region.

What comes next

The first weekend runs from February 28 to March 2, and the fourth ends on March 23. The overall tally then fixes the eight Online Open places in each region, and the Pro League starts on April 4. The Split 1 Playoffs at the Esports World Cup, from July 7 to 11, are the first of the three LAN events of Year 6.

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