ALGS travel expenses get covered after backlash against Respawn

The Apex Legends Global Series is the premier event for the Battle Royale. The tournament is rounding into its return to in-person LAN events soon, but that has presented a few problems. Initially, a number of teams couldn’t actually attend the tournament due to the ALGS travel expenses. While they had proved themselves skilled enough, the teams lacked the funding to actually get to the physical tournament, and organizers weren’t planning on helping.

After a backlash though, organizers have been forced to flip their plans on the travel expenses controversy and fix things.

ALGS Travel Expenses – What’s Happened?

The ALGS has been online for some time at the moment, the upcoming Split 2 Play Off is set to change that though. It’s bringing back in-person events for a LAN playoff in Stockholm Sweden. Since the game has been online for esports for a while though, this raised a few problems. Mainly it was actually getting the teams to the LAN event. In most games, this is a trivial part of the event. However, there was a bit of a controversial policy this time around.

Respawn previously said they would only be compensating half of the teams for their travel expenses. The other half would be responsible for their own travel. This is quite a cost at late notice. It was especially frustrating since the teams who weren’t receiving compensation included most of the unsigned teams and smaller orgs.

Just evaluating, a full trip for a South America team including flights + hotel/AirBnB + food, it's aprox. $7K USD 😵😔

— Xen Stal ✈️🇸🇪 (@sTaLizyJC) March 30, 2022

Reaction and Crowdfunding

Some of the teams involved in the ALGS even said they would have to drop out since the cost of attending was too high for them. Some competitors even stepped up to try and help the smaller organizers afford the trip.

hey @PistilloMx, #SCRY's hotel and travel is on us for the apex event. we want to compete against the best and need you there to do it🤝

— NRG (@NRGgg) March 30, 2022

Outside of specific teams offering to help, others in the Apex community took to crowdfunding to try and finance the travel expenses of some players. This included popular Apex streamers who tried to help fund the trip.

One of the game’s most prominent pro players ImperialHal called out EA’s decision too:

Yea this is a complete joke , as far as I know almost every other game covers expenses such as these but EA decides to do a half ass job instead. Be better and cover all the teams that have qualified @PlayApexEsports https://t.co/vMcdRUlRFB

— TSMFTX ImperialHal (@ImperialHal) March 30, 2022

Respawn forced back on ALGS travel expenses

Things looked pretty grim for some of the underdog teams at the ALGS because of travel expenses. The outrage from the community and players surrounding the game didn’t go unnoticed. This week Respawn esports have said they will now be covering the travel expenses for all of the teams that qualified for the LAN event. This is a major change and a good example of what a community can achieve.

This is a huge shift in policy but the original decision was criticised nearly universally, with nearly everyone agreeing this was a bad decision. Respawn will now be covering the travel expenses to this LAN, and to future LAN events. This definitely helps the lesser-funded teams make sure they get to the tournament and has avoided a potentially disastrous in-person LAN with multiple participants missing.

With all teams now in attendance, the ALGS looks set to be an exciting return to LAN tournaments for the game. Those underdog teams will now be able to get there with the ALGS travel expenses figured out. If you’re looking at Apex Legends betting, then this is going to be a tight tournament. Be sure to tune in and see how it goes.