ALGS Forces a Shake-up in Apex Legends Pro Play With Radical New Legend Ban Rules in Hopes to Revive Dwindling Player Base

Apex Legends had a terrible year in 2024. EA and Respawn Entertainment dropped the ball on multiple occasions and disappointed fans more than ever. But they are making big changes in the professional and esports side of the game for the 2025 Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS).

As we reached the end of ALGS Year 4, EA announced that there were some big changes for Year 5. One of them is the legend ban system and fans are already excited about what this change implies and will bring. Maybe Apex isn’t going to die so easily after all.

The new legend ban system in ALGS Year 5 will change the way competitive Apex Legends is played. Starting from Year 5, the most-selected Legend in each game will be banned for the rest of the series. This means that if Gibraltar is the most-picked Legend in game one, he will no longer be available for the remaining games in that series. Read more details here.

Next ALGS will probably be a lot more fun to watch!
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An ALGS bracket is usually six to eight matches. So teams will need to be more strategic every game as Legends keep getting removed. Respawn has also foreseen any potential problems with this new format. The longest-banned Legend within a specific class will return if needed. We’re already loving this change because it’ll introduce so much more variety to the meta.

This new rule applies to all major ALGS events, including the Pro League, Pro League Qualifier, Last Chance Qualifier, and LAN tournaments. We may as well say hallelujah now because this is going to completely shake up the meta. If you’re an Apex fan, you know what this means. No more watching pros play the same three characters for months on end in a stale meta.

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The current support meta with Gibraltar and Newcastle has already been played to death in recent months and this change will shake up 2025 not just for viewers but also the players. We want to see unpopular heroes like Revenant, Octane, and others in the mix sometimes.

For casual players, this change in the ALGS could be an inspiration to experiment with different legends in their own games. Many players tend to stick to the same legends season after season. But if we see our favorite pros experiment with, and play different legends, who’s to say we won’t too. This would also lead to a meta shift outside of professional play.

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Outside of legend bans, we’re also going to see other changes. These include a revamped map pool featuring Broken Moon and E-District, a larger 160-team LAN event, and adjustments to point systems. You might ask why Respawn is focusing on the esports scene when the casual side of the game has been suffering so much.

The answer lies in the recently concluded ALGS Championship event in Sapporo, Japan. Despite the abysmal player counts of Apex on Steam, tens of thousands of people showed up to watch the tournament online and thousands showed up to fill the seats of the arena. So the game is, in fact, not dead.

Still, it can’t stop at this. Pulling viewers is one thing, but players are what keep a game alive. So if these changes attract more viewers, we also need in-game changers that turn those viewers into players. How this happens is entirely up to the developers. Respawn has a bad reputation of being greedy and ignoring player feedback. But if the game is to survive, things have to change.