Two years ago we left the ALGS and Apex esports. If you follow the scene closely, you probably remember our statement. Since our farewell made a splash, we wanted to explain what’s changed and why we’re coming back.
[Read our previous statement here.]
We also want to talk about what we’re planning. This time, we’re hoping to do more for the new roster, the scene, and the community with better coverage.
Let’s dive in.
Lee en Español
Why we’re back
When we left, we said that we still “have a huge love and belief in Apex as a game” and we meant that. As a game, Apex Legends always had great potential as one of the most unique FPS titles in the world. We knew that as an esport, it had the design, the player base, and the audience to succeed. But with a venture as big as the ALGS, as building an entire esport scene, the devil is in the details.
Apex’s incredibly solid foundation set very high expectations. The hype of the early days of the esport led to overly high forecasted revenues, which raised salaries and expenses too high. After a while, it became clear the revenue would not reach its forecast and cover costs. The ALGS, while interesting and exciting, lacked the sponsors, the infrastructure, and the return that a team like Liquid would need to stay involved. For that reason, right around our departure, the Apex scene saw a number of other teams leave as well.
In the past two years, the Apex scene has gradually adjusted costs to the point where we believe that Apex can start realizing its potential. To be transparent, one big adjustment has been player salaries. Salaries are always tricky to talk about. Fans want to see their favorite players get the salary they deserve — we do too. However, when the hype for a young, growing esport becomes feverish, salaries can jump up so high that the overall health of the scene takes a hit. (Especially true during the current “Esports Winter.”) We are not celebrating the drop in player salary, but we see it as healthy for the Apex scene.
Read about how we're making it through Esports Winter here.
In terms of partners, we think the ALGS has found an incredible one in Alienware. Alienware, and our naming rights partnership with them, is the largest reason for our return to the ALGS — and that should come as no surprise. Alienware has championed competitive gaming for its entire modern era and our decade-plus partnership with them reshaped our entire organization. Naturally, we see their partnership as a positive sign for the future of the ALGS. We’re very excited to enter Apex not as Team Liquid but as Team Liquid Alienware.
And then there’s the team. Team Liquid’s goal is to compete at the highest level so the reality is that we enter any esport based on who we can sign. Due to Alienware’s coming on as our own title partner for Apex, we got the chance to sign the best LATAM roster in Apex history. We saw this as not only giving us a chance to take home a trophy, but also to speak to a brand new community in a brand new language. We’re incredibly excited to enter the LATAM esports scene for the first time and to do our best to build that community up for future success.
The EWC is also a notable reason for our return, but it’s not the biggest one. The EWC’s structure does give a strategic reason to return to Apex, but if Team Liquid bit on every financial incentive put in front of us, we’d have gone out of business by now. We look at the long term before entering an esport. For Team Liquid, the EWC helps make a business case, but the biggest long-term value is in a title partnership with Alienware, partnership with EA and Respawn, a community in LATAM Apex, and a roster with the potential to take home trophies.
Putting down roots in Apex
We hope to do more than just compete, though. In our farewell, we admitted that we didn’t cover Apex as well as we wanted to and missed opportunities to highlight and build community around the incredibly talented team we had. This time around, we don’t want to make the same mistake.
To kick off our return to Apex, we’ll be hosting a booth at the ALGS: 2024 Split 1 Playoffs in Los Angeles. The booth will be in the Galen Center and will host a meet and greet with the team, a sign making station, a merch store, a chance to win free Alienware products (including a laptop), and all kinds of free goodies too. If you’re attending, please stop by and say hello to Blue!
Moving forward, we aim to cover Apex in much more depth. To do that, we’ll be sending our Apex creators to ALGS live events, creating more content with the team (video and written), stocking a unique Alienware jersey, releasing a free digital fan pack, as well as covering the Apex team on our main Team Liquid Twitter/X account. We’re also creating a brand new YouTube account for Apex and a Twitter/X account for Spanish speakers — x.com/teamliquid_ES — that will focus on Apex, but cover TL more broadly too.
Coach Steven "Pistillo" Rojas: “It is exciting beyond compare to be part of Team Liquid. Having the support of this organization is a dream come true, and we hope to inspire other players to pursue their dreams in the esports industry, demonstrating that you can go far with great effort, dedication, and a lot of passion.”
Part of why we can do this is due to how we exited Apex in 2022. Just a few months before leaving, we’d hoped to do more with Apex, not less, and hired talented staff and Content Creators who knew the Apex community. When Xset acquired our roster, we managed to keep our Apex staff and move them to new projects. Now that we’re back in Apex, these content team members made it so that we’re not just building from scratch.
As fans, spectators, analysts, we all focus on the competition. But if you look deeply at Team Liquid’s presence and legacy in esports, our history is written in infrastructure, content, and community as much as it is competition. Even though we competed well in Apex in 2021 and 2022, we didn’t put down the same roots as in League, Valorant, Dota, CS, Smash, Starcraft, and many other esports. Our biggest goal — apart from winning — is to dig deeper.
¡Puro pinche Liquid Alienware!
Apex is back on the menu!
Why we're returning to Apex
Two years ago we left the ALGS and Apex esports. If you follow the scene closely, you probably remember our statement. Since our farewell made a splash, we wanted to explain what’s changed and why we’re coming back.
[Read our previous statement here.]
We also want to talk about what we’re planning. This time, we’re hoping to do more for the new roster, the scene, and the community with better coverage.
Let’s dive in.
Lee en Español
Why we’re back
When we left, we said that we still “have a huge love and belief in Apex as a game” and we meant that. As a game, Apex Legends always had great potential as one of the most unique FPS titles in the world. We knew that as an esport, it had the design, the player base, and the audience to succeed. But with a venture as big as the ALGS, as building an entire esport scene, the devil is in the details.
Apex’s incredibly solid foundation set very high expectations. The hype of the early days of the esport led to overly high forecasted revenues, which raised salaries and expenses too high. After a while, it became clear the revenue would not reach its forecast and cover costs. The ALGS, while interesting and exciting, lacked the sponsors, the infrastructure, and the return that a team like Liquid would need to stay involved. For that reason, right around our departure, the Apex scene saw a number of other teams leave as well.
In the past two years, the Apex scene has gradually adjusted costs to the point where we believe that Apex can start realizing its potential. To be transparent, one big adjustment has been player salaries. Salaries are always tricky to talk about. Fans want to see their favorite players get the salary they deserve — we do too. However, when the hype for a young, growing esport becomes feverish, salaries can jump up so high that the overall health of the scene takes a hit. (Especially true during the current “Esports Winter.”) We are not celebrating the drop in player salary, but we see it as healthy for the Apex scene.
Read about how we're making it through Esports Winter here.
In terms of partners, we think the ALGS has found an incredible one in Alienware. Alienware, and our naming rights partnership with them, is the largest reason for our return to the ALGS — and that should come as no surprise. Alienware has championed competitive gaming for its entire modern era and our decade-plus partnership with them reshaped our entire organization. Naturally, we see their partnership as a positive sign for the future of the ALGS. We’re very excited to enter Apex not as Team Liquid but as Team Liquid Alienware.
And then there’s the team. Team Liquid’s goal is to compete at the highest level so the reality is that we enter any esport based on who we can sign. Due to Alienware’s coming on as our own title partner for Apex, we got the chance to sign the best LATAM roster in Apex history. We saw this as not only giving us a chance to take home a trophy, but also to speak to a brand new community in a brand new language. We’re incredibly excited to enter the LATAM esports scene for the first time and to do our best to build that community up for future success.
The EWC is also a notable reason for our return, but it’s not the biggest one. The EWC’s structure does give a strategic reason to return to Apex, but if Team Liquid bit on every financial incentive put in front of us, we’d have gone out of business by now. We look at the long term before entering an esport. For Team Liquid, the EWC helps make a business case, but the biggest long-term value is in a title partnership with Alienware, partnership with EA and Respawn, a community in LATAM Apex, and a roster with the potential to take home trophies.
Putting down roots in Apex
We hope to do more than just compete, though. In our farewell, we admitted that we didn’t cover Apex as well as we wanted to and missed opportunities to highlight and build community around the incredibly talented team we had. This time around, we don’t want to make the same mistake.
To kick off our return to Apex, we’ll be hosting a booth at the ALGS: 2024 Split 1 Playoffs in Los Angeles. The booth will be in the Galen Center and will host a meet and greet with the team, a sign making station, a merch store, a chance to win free Alienware products (including a laptop), and all kinds of free goodies too. If you’re attending, please stop by and say hello to Blue!
Moving forward, we aim to cover Apex in much more depth. To do that, we’ll be sending our Apex creators to ALGS live events, creating more content with the team (video and written), stocking a unique Alienware jersey, releasing a free digital fan pack, as well as covering the Apex team on our main Team Liquid Twitter/X account. We’re also creating a brand new YouTube account for Apex and a Twitter/X account for Spanish speakers — x.com/teamliquid_ES — that will focus on Apex, but cover TL more broadly too.
Coach Steven "Pistillo" Rojas: “It is exciting beyond compare to be part of Team Liquid. Having the support of this organization is a dream come true, and we hope to inspire other players to pursue their dreams in the esports industry, demonstrating that you can go far with great effort, dedication, and a lot of passion.”
Part of why we can do this is due to how we exited Apex in 2022. Just a few months before leaving, we’d hoped to do more with Apex, not less, and hired talented staff and Content Creators who knew the Apex community. When Xset acquired our roster, we managed to keep our Apex staff and move them to new projects. Now that we’re back in Apex, these content team members made it so that we’re not just building from scratch.
As fans, spectators, analysts, we all focus on the competition. But if you look deeply at Team Liquid’s presence and legacy in esports, our history is written in infrastructure, content, and community as much as it is competition. Even though we competed well in Apex in 2021 and 2022, we didn’t put down the same roots as in League, Valorant, Dota, CS, Smash, Starcraft, and many other esports. Our biggest goal — apart from winning — is to dig deeper.
¡Puro pinche Liquid Alienware!
