Electronic Arts (EA) just wrapped up the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) Year 5 Championship in Sapporo, Japan. In an exclusive interview with esports.gg, Monica Dinsmore, Head of Esports for EA, and Sam Turkbas, Senior Director of Esports Product, shared their thoughts and insights on ALGS, the future, feedback, and how their events are "love letters" to the fans.
ALGS in Sapporo: Electric Boogaloo
ALGS Year 5 saw the return of its pinnacle Championship event to the city of Sapporo, Japan, for the second consecutive year. This year, however, the EA team collaborated with several local units to enhance the event during its runback.
"I think fans are super happy, and I know everyone who worked on the event is also super happy. We were able to work with the City of Sapporo, the PREMIST Dome, and the Hokkaido Esports Association to start planning fairly early - and we're thrilled to see this hard work come to life," said Monica.
"You can experience the excitement in the Fan Zone; fans being able to access their favorite players and teams. [They line up] for merch and to met people — it's electric. Then, you bring that into the arena, and fans are filling the seats and we've sold more tickets than ever."
Champs is set to return to the city for a third run in Year 6. Apex Legends is popular in Japan, but this may raise concerns about bringing the event closer to its playerbase.
To this, Turkbas outlined how they address this concern. "We had the ALGS Open in North America earlier this season. We had the Esports World Cup as well, in the MENA region. We have gone global: we had three events in Europe in Year 3 and one in Year 4," he said. "We haven't been able to run more of the traditional split-style event — when we think about how we bring this experience to one of our normal split event and make sure we're creating the same type of experience and opportunity in our coming events is really important to us."
For Year 6, ALGS will be brought to three different continents, including the Esports World Cup in Riyadh. It will once again culminate in Sapporo, Japan.
The partnership we have with the City of Sapporo is really unique and incredible. Running the championship [in Sapporo] three years in a row is an opportunity because we can build year-over-year, but it also means we have to be mindful about the experiences we bring to players elsewhere.
We're excited to see how we can improve with a lot of the learning we've had over the last two years in Sapporo.
"Being here in Sapporo for multiple years just allows us to really get good at what we're doing," Dinsmore supplemented.
She also added that their announcement of the Champs venue way ahead allows fans to make plans early. "It signals to the fans that they can plan and they can, you know, make their plans ahead of time so that they can be here. But also for everyone that's working on the event, we have a lot of runway to work together to bring better and better experiences to the championship."
The EA "love letter" mantra
With Year 6 plans already announced, Dinsmore and Turkbas spoke on how the ALGS experience is tailored based on the location.
"We have this phrase that, wherever we go, we're thinking about writing a love letter to the fans of that region. You see it in our merch and branding; we're really leaning on the local culture to make it a great experience for the fans in that region," Dinsmore said. "We spend a lot of time listening to what fans want and really working to be as authentic as possible when we bring our events to different regions."
"The team spends a lot of time thinking about tailoring the experience," said Turkbas. He then directed attention to the graphics and the broadcast assets, which sport snowflakes to capture the wintry identity of Sapporo during this time of year. "It's really cool to see that we still have more people watching online than we do in-house. To bring that sense of place and understanding to the wider viewing audience online is really cool."
This year's Champs also had a Chinese broadcast as a testament to reaching new markets for ALGS.
"We are really trying to focus on bringing ALGS in any way we can, no matter where we are in the world, to as many fans as possible," Turkbas emphasized.
On the topic of bringing ALGS to audiences, Turkbas shared his thoughts on co-streamers. There were plenty present in the venue, including Jack "NiceWigg" Martin, who is also a co-owner of 100 Thieves.
"It's a really authentic way to bring ALGS to fans," Turkbas remarked. "It's about finding the right fit - to see somebody so ingrained in the community and has been part of this community so long and is actually such an important part of, for many people, of watching ALGS, it wouldn't be the same if they weren't doing it."
How much does EA take from community feedback?
Fans on-site have a feedback form they can fill out so they can air their thoughts about the event. A similar system is present on the live broadcasts, where a link is pinned on the chat. The question is, do these really make a difference?
EA's response was "100%, absolutely."
"We have a fantastic internal team called Consumer Insights that helps us put that form together and provides analysts on feedback data. Those are things we look at because we want to make the best experience possible. We want them to feel empowered, that they get what they want, that they see what they told us in the broadcast," Turkbas expounded.
"It's critically improtant to us that [giving feedback] is a great way to get your opinions heard. As Sam says, the most important reason why we're here is because of the fans," Dinsmore added. "Please go and fill out those forms. It's super, super helpful."
"We can't promise we'll be able to do everything, but we will listen," the two concluded.
ALGS Year 5 Championship ended with Oblivion lifting the trophy and Miguel "Blinkzr" Quiles as the Finals MVP. Competitive Apex Legends begins in mid-February with the Open Series.
