“Active coaching now prohibited”- ALGS makes u-turn on coach involvement ahead of Week 2 cover image

“Active coaching now prohibited”- ALGS makes u-turn on coach involvement ahead of Week 2

Following immense pushback Respawn Entertainment has made a u-turn and reverted to active coaching being prohibited in the ALGS.

The ALGS Pro League got fully underway last weekend but concerns were voiced by the likes of NRG's sweetdreams, C9's Zach Mazer and TSM's Hal over the involvement of coaches during matches.

A general consensus was reached that it challenged the competitive integrity of the ALGS, and earlier today it was officially announced that coaching during ALGS matches is now prohibited.

Why are coaches being prohibited?

For this season ALGS coaches were allowed to communicate to players mid-game. Ideally this was to help coaches, which are fairly common, be more involved in the competition.

However, with a main ALGS broadcast and many players streaming on Twitch, it meant that coaches could potentially gather valuable intel to pass on to their own team.

Even with the 5-minute stream delay, beacon information for example could still be very valuable. In particular, for example for teams who are not running a recon legend and are unable to activate survey beacons.

An official message from the ALGS regarding stream delays and coaching
An official message from the ALGS regarding stream delays and coaching

In a bid to tackle to the potential for foul play, the ALGS has now made two important changes.

  • Minimum ALGS stream delay increased from 5 to 10 minutes
  • Active Coaching is now prohibited

The minimum 10 minute stream delay will apply to all partner ALGS broadcasts and to any players who wish to stream their matches.

No "Active Coaching" means coaches can no longer communicate directly to players during a match, which was the case in the previous ALGS season.

The official ALGS 2.0 match rules now state:

During a match series, any communication between Competitors on different Teams are required to go through the Official ALGS Discord servers or in-Game match lobby.

While a match is in progress, the only permissible communication is communication between the three (3) Competitors who are actively participating in the match on the same Team.

A match is considered to be live or in progress as soon as the dropship appears following the legend selection screen and until the Apex Champion screen appears displaying the in-Game results of the match.

Cloud9's coach PVPX joked about applying for MacDonald's in reply to the news
Cloud9's coach PVPX joked about applying for MacDonald's in reply to the news

What impact will this ALGS coaching rule change have?

The decision to revert back to no active coaching is a very positive sign that Respawn Entertainment is paying attention to player and community feedback.

It is also adds to the credibility of the ALGS as a serious competition, and not just a high-paying round of scrims every weekend. The ALGS Week 2 starts tomorrow October 23rd.