Apex Legends

ALGS Split 2 Playoffs Las Vegas: schedule, times and Twitch drops

-VersaciBoosts

Monday, October 26, 2026

Key takeaways

Apex Legends esports is back in North America, "for the first time since 2024" in Respawn Entertainment's words. The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Split 2 Playoffs bring 40 teams to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, playing for $2,000,000 and Championship Points toward the ALGS Championship (Champs) in Sapporo.

What matters first? The start time. Two clock changes land in one week, and Sunday is the day they bite. Facts come from Respawn and EA, mostly Respawn's official ALGS guide.

ALGS Split 2 Playoffs schedule and start times

What's on, and when? Each series is six matches, per Respawn. Thursday and Friday are the Group Stage, in Las Vegas time:

Saturday October 31 uses the same slots: Elimination Round 1 at 10:15 AM, Winners Round at 2:30 PM, Elimination Round 2 at 6:45 PM. Sunday November 1 has the NiceWigg vs Greek showmatch at 1:00 PM, the Opening Ceremony at 3:00 PM and the Match Point Finals at 3:30 PM. The broadcast starts at 10:00 AM PT Thursday to Saturday and 1:00 PM PT on Sunday, with no end times given.

Start times in ET, UK and CET

Why so messy? The UK and most of Europe left summer time on October 25, the US leaves daylight saving time at 2 AM on Sunday November 1. From Thursday to Saturday, Las Vegas is seven hours behind the UK and eight behind Central Europe. On Sunday, which Respawn labels "PST times", the gap grows by an hour.

Our reading: the third series runs into the small hours in the UK and Europe every night, with a 2:45 AM start in Berlin. Our tip for Europe: Sunday's Match Point Finals start after midnight CET, and the rules set no maximum number of matches, so plan for a late one. Japan gets the Thursday to Saturday broadcasts at 2:00 AM JST the next day and the finals at 8:30 AM JST Monday. In UTC, series start at 17:15, 21:30 and 01:45, the finals at 23:30.

ALGS Twitch Drops: four Apex Packs and four items

Want something back for watching? Each day, 15 minutes earns an Apex Pack and 60 minutes earns the day's item.

Respawn's rule: "You must have your EA account linked to a valid Twitch account to earn Twitch Drops." Per EA Help's account linking page:

1. Log in to your EA Account and go to Connected Accounts.
2. Select Twitch, then select Continue.
3. Sign in to Twitch and complete the steps.

You can link from Twitch too. Check it's the right Twitch account and that you followed Twitch's steps for claiming Drops. Missing a reward? Check the criteria, then use EA's Missing Content Tool. EA allows just 3 account switches per rolling year, so don't hop around.

Our advice: link before Thursday and watch at least 60 minutes a day on the official PlayApex Twitch channel. Respawn hasn't said if other channels carry these Apex Legends Twitch Drops, and signing in to Twitch inside Multiview, which worked for drops in August's Pro League, isn't confirmed for the Playoffs. At the venue you get code cards to redeem once you're home.

Keeping count of packs? Our free Apex pack tracker shows how many you've opened since your last Heirloom Shards and how many are left to the 500-pack guarantee.

How to watch: Twitch, YouTube and ALGS Multiview

Where's the main show? PlayApex on Twitch and the ALGS YouTube channel carry the official English broadcast, with GlitterXplosion, Raynday, VikkiKitty, Bravo, Lace, Onset, Gaskin, Snip3down, Graceful and JHawk on the talent list. Respawn also lists a B stream with NiceWigg and Greek, and watch parties by Masanori and Assikun (Japanese) and Restia (Chinese).

ALGS Multiview is the one ranked players should definitely open. Respawn says "every single POV will be available". You can hear team comms, watch one team or several at once, and keep the map, stats and main broadcast up.

Tip for ranked players: follow one team's POV through a whole six-match series to see where it drops, when it rotates and how it uses its Legends. A broadcast cutting between 20 teams kinda can't show that.

How the format works: Group Stage, bracket and Match Point

How does 40 become one? In three stages.

Group Stage

Four groups of 10, seeded by Championship Points, each play a six-match series against every other group, 20 teams per lobby, so 18 matches per team. Total Group Stage points then decide Saturday: top 20 to the Winners Round, bottom 20 to Elimination Round 1.

Saturday's bracket

Each round is six matches. A bad Group Stage isn't the end. The bottom 20 just take the harder road through the lower bracket.

Match Point Finals

Read this twice. A team that reaches 50 points in the final round becomes Match Point Eligible, then wins the event by winning a match after the one where it reached 50. Everyone else is ranked by final-round score, and the rules set no maximum number of matches. Respawn's ALGS season overview says the format is "designed to ensure a true champion emerges in a battle royale setting".

Points per match

Plus 1 point per kill, 0 for a missed match. A win with 8 kills is worth 20, second with 3 kills is worth 12. So a team on 45 that wins with 8 kills reaches 65 and turns Match Point Eligible, but still needs another win.

POI Draft, maps and settings

Teams draft landing spots per series in a POI Draft, and the official ALGS account on X said on October 14 that the Group Stage POIs are locked. Maps: World's Edge, Storm Point, E-District and Olympus, rotation on battlefy.com/algs. Play is PC only, with Jumpmaster, Hot Zones, Heat Shields and Holosprays disabled and Anonymous Mode on. The 54-page ALGS Year 6 rules (PDF) have a lot more.

ALGS Split 2 Playoffs groups and teams

Who made it? 120 teams played the Split 2 Pro League and Regional Finals for 40 spots, split by region on Split 1 Playoffs results: Americas 15, APAC North 10, APAC South 8, EMEA 7.

UNLIMIT (Group D) won the Split 1 Playoffs at the Esports World Cup, which Respawn's Split 2 Pro League post called "amazing to see a team from Japan win a global ALGS event for the first time!" Respawn's October 25 replay of UNLIMIT's final 3v3 shows them against ZETA DIVISION (Group A), and the two only share a Group Stage lobby on Friday at 6:45 PM PT (9:45 PM ET, 1:45 AM UK and 2:45 AM CET Saturday). Respawn also spotlighted YanyaMx of All Gamers Global (AG Global, Group B), who has "qualified to a total of 10 #ALGS LAN events", and Jusna of ENTER FORCE.36 (Group C), who "has been relentless year after year".

Prize pool, Championship Points and the road to Sapporo

How much is on the line? $2,000,000, and the top three share $1,100,000.

Championship Points go to each player, not the team, and a player needs at least 12 matches at the event to earn them. Why care? ALGS Champs takes 32 teams on Championship Points after these Playoffs plus 8 from the Last Chance Qualifier (top 2 per region). It runs January 28 to 31, 2027 at the Daiwa House Premist Dome in Sapporo, Japan, in the same format as Las Vegas. The second ticket wave went on sale through Zaiko on October 17 at 12 PM JST, per the ALGS Champs tickets page.

Going to the Orleans Arena

Going yourself? The arena is at 4500 W Tropicana Ave, Las Vegas, NV 89103, a walk from the Orleans Hotel & Casino. Ticketmaster sells General Admission (single days or a 4-day package, general entry and seating) and Premium (4 days or Sunday only, with early entry for first seat selection on Sunday and a premium gift), both with a daily giveaway item. Doors open at 9:00 AM Thursday to Saturday, and Sunday at 11:00 AM for Premium and 12:00 PM for General.

From the event FAQ:

• Re-entry on your ticket days with your wristband, through security each time.
• Government photo ID for everyone 18+; under-18s need a guardian 18+ with ID.
• Clear bags up to 12" x 12" x 6", one-gallon clear freezer bags, or clutches up to 4.5" x 6.5" x 1".
• No outside food or drink, no cameras beyond phones without EA media accreditation.
• Accessible seating: email ALGSEvents@ea.com.

Halloween cosplay

Halloween falls on Saturday, and Respawn noticed. Cosplayer check-in runs Saturday 9 AM to 5 PM and Sunday 11 AM to 3 PM, with a lanyard, badge, pin, "a digital reward you can redeem in-game" and gifts while supplies last. Group photos at the "Welcome to Legendary" sign follow the Elimination Round 1 games, around 1:15 PM Saturday. On Sunday, check in with the Community Managers at 12:15 PM for a section by the stage during the 1:00 PM showmatch.

Costume rules: faces visible (no masks, face coverings or face paint), no weapons or weapon-like props, whether real, replica or toy, nothing over 12 inches, no large chains or spikes. Expect extra screening and no coat check or luggage storage. The lanyard is a keepsake. It doesn't get you in.

Booths and merch

Inside: an Ask a Dev booth, meet and greets, team booths, fan art walls, a free-play area, a Nessie hunt, poster making and giveaway pickup. Merch includes the Viva ALGS Hoodie, an E-Vegas Hawaiian Shirt, mini-plush Nessie blind boxes, a Nessie bucket hat and a Vegas Loba tee, also on the Apex Legends Shop for up to a week after the event. As for the showmatch, Respawn only says "players will have their hands full while competing".

ALGS Legend Ban System vs Ranked Legend Banning

Do Legend bans in Apex Legends work the same in the ALGS and in Ranked? No, they're two separate systems.

The ALGS Legend Ban System, used at these Playoffs and through the Split 2 Pro League:

1. Every Legend is available in a series' first match.
2. After each match, the Legend most teams picked is banned for the rest of the series, so five are gone by match six.
3. Ties go to the Legend picked most across the series, then further tie-breaks.
4. If a whole class (Assault, Skirmisher, Recon, Support or Controller) would be wiped out, its longest-banned Legend returns.

Year 6 also brought Legend Bans to the Challenger Circuit, "reducing the gap between amateur and professional play".

Ranked Legend Banning arrives in Season 31, and EA's Ranked Roadmap says "any match with Diamond+ players will use the feature". In a Banning Phase before the match, each player chooses one Legend, each chosen Legend shows its percent chance of a ban (more votes, higher chance), and the system draws bans at random by those odds. Respawn's reason: "A system that consistently bans the most-voted Legends creates its own banning meta, and it works directly against that goal."

Our reading: pros know the lobby's most-picked Legend vanishes next match and adapt mid-series, while a popular Ranked pick can survive the draw. For current picks, our Apex Legends tier list for Season 30 uses Predator pick and win rates plus ALGS pro data.

Season 32 adds a "Pro-Am League" of Diamond, Masters and Grandmasters Rank tiers, home to Drop Zone deployment and Legend Banning, with scoring "more in line with what the true Apex professionals see in ALGS with highly valuable top-end placement." More in our guide to Apex ranked changes for Seasons 31 and 32.

Season 31 reveal on the Thursday broadcast

When does Season 31 get shown? Respawn's schedule overview lists "SEASON 31 REVEAL" on Thursday October 29 and "DEVS TALK S31 + ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS" on Saturday, both without times. On Thursday, visitors can also quiz developers at the Ask a Dev booth and may end up on the broadcast.

Our advice: watch Thursday from the 10:00 AM PT start (1:00 PM ET, 5:00 PM UK, 6:00 PM CET) on Twitch with your accounts linked. The same hour earns the "Cashing In" charm.

Season 30 ends November 3, per Respawn's October 6 update notes. Season 31's name, start time, Legend, map changes and patch notes aren't out, and we're not gonna guess. The Ranked changes are announced:

• Legend Banning in Diamond+ matches
• A Lobby Tier in every Ranked match: reduced entry cost for squads two or more Rank Tiers below it (a Challenger match), increased for squads two or more above (a Goliath match)
• A visible Demotion Protection display
• No Road to Ranked challenges, so Ranked needs account level 20 again

What ends with Season 30 on November 3

Alright, so the Playoffs weekend is Season 30's last stretch. Also closing November 3:

• Respawn's two live matchmaking tests (our Apex crossplay and queue tests explainer)
• The Apex Blood Pact event in Wildcard
• The ranked split, so check today's Predator RP cutoff if you're chasing Predator

Ranked goal left and not enough evenings? Our Apex rank boost covers any rank up to Predator with a top-750 booster on your platform, piloted or self-play, with live tracking on PC, PlayStation and Xbox.

What Respawn hasn't announced yet

As of October 26, 2026:

• The exact time of Thursday's Season 31 reveal
• Season 31 content beyond the Ranked Roadmap
• End times for any series
• The map rotation for each series
• Whether co-streams or watch parties carry Twitch Drops
• Ticket prices (Respawn's posts don't list them)
• Last Chance Qualifier dates

FAQ

When are the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs?

Thursday October 29 to Sunday November 1, 2026, at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

What time do the ALGS Split 2 Playoffs start in the UK and Europe?

5:00 PM UK and 6:00 PM CET from Thursday to Saturday. Sunday's Match Point Finals start at 11:30 PM UK and 12:30 AM CET Monday.

How do I get the ALGS Twitch Drops?

Link your EA account to Twitch, then watch PlayApex: 15 minutes a day for an Apex Pack, 60 for the daily item. Respawn hasn't named any other channel, YouTube included.

When is the Apex Season 31 reveal?

On the Thursday October 29 broadcast, with no exact time. Devs talk Season 31 on Saturday.

Where is ALGS Champs?

At the Daiwa House Premist Dome in Sapporo, Japan, January 28 to 31, 2027.