How do ALGS Legend Bans work?

ALGS Year 5 is back, and it has brought a whole host of changes to the rules, regulations and format of the competition. The most notable of that is one of the most requested ALGS changes, Legend Bans. The days of seeing every team play the same Legends over and over again is no more.

This brand new feature is making its debut during the ALGS Pro League, but will also be in effect for the ALGS Open, ALGS Midseason Playoffs and LCQ/PLQ events.

Here is how Legends Bans will work in ALGS Year 5.

Legend Bans will take place after every game across a series. All Legends will be avaliable to be chosen when a series starts. Then, after each match, the most picked Legend in that game will be removed from the pool of avaliable Legends for the remainder of a match series.

In Apex Legends, every Legend is in a class and each class has its own special perks. To ensure that teams can always access these abilities one Legend from each class will always be avaliable.

So, if all Legends from a class would be set to be removed at any point during a series, the Legend that has been banned the longest will come back to the pool of avaliable Legends. This will potentially be a rule we see in events that feature Match Point.

This will require teams to have a lot of versatility in what Legends they use. We are so used to Legends having 90%+ pick rates across the ALGS. From Caustic, to Valkyrie to more recently Bangalore there has always been at least one and sometimes two "must-pick" Legends.

Now, lesser played Legends will get a time to shine and there is a new tactical element to teams choices. Do you go with the most popular Legends, or do you try and establish a combination that won't be banned? We don't really know fully how this will shake out, but with the ALGS back in action we are seeing Legend Bans for the first time this weekend.

Stay tuned to esports.gg for full coverage of the ALGS and all things Apex Legends.