Alliance is essentially the most constant workforce within the Apex Legends aggressive scene, and John ‘Hakis’ Håkansson has been the face of the European powerhouse since 2020.
Nevertheless, while the workforce is constantly a menace at each main ALGS occasion, Alliance has but to raise the sport’s greatest trophy. Now, with the ALGS 12 months Championship underway in Sapporo, Alliance and Hakis really feel extra assured than ever.
“We Solely Ever Deal with Ourselves”
Talking to Esports Insider Italy earlier than the occasion commenced, Hakis mentioned: “General, we really feel very assured. We’re most likely the best-performing workforce in scrims.
“We’re ready, virtually completely, and our greatest impediment will simply be the Match Level Finals. We’ve been a really constant workforce for the previous two years and have gone high three virtually at each occasion, incomes extra money than each different workforce on this planet, so we’re one of the best performing workforce, and we simply wish to shut it out by profitable a trophy.”
Heading into such an necessary occasion, squads spend months testing workforce composition, rotations, loadouts and circle-by-circle determination making. Nonetheless, some components can’t be predicted, particularly through the Match Level Ultimate.
“Loads is dependent upon what will get banned,” Hakis admitted. “We’ve had a number of variations of the ban system within the match level scrims. Some days it was very useful for us, different days it acquired very aggressive, so it is dependent upon which groups qualify. General, we’re very assured, so we’re chilling it doesn’t matter what.”
When requested if there’s any specific workforce Alliance is afraid of, the 2024 Esports World Cup winner, confidently mentioned: “No person. We’ve by no means had any threats; we solely ever concentrate on ourselves, and if we play our personal recreation, we do properly. No person else actually issues.
“Our play fashion remains to be the identical: we acquire a whole lot of factors each recreation and attempt to shut it out on match level with a win. I’m very assured of a top-three end, and it’s going to be slightly RNG for match level, however that’s the format on the whole.”
What Apex Legends Actually Wants
Not solely is the Swedish participant one of the constant professionals within the Apex Legends scene, however he’s additionally been with the identical workforce for greater than 5 years.
As such, he’s the proper candidate for an in-depth evaluation of what Apex Legends has achieved and what it wants on the aggressive entrance.
“I’ve had a tremendous expertise within the aggressive scene of Apex”, mentioned Hakis. “I do have a look at different video games, and I hope we are able to take slightly bit from them and convey it right here. Extra LANs, for instance, as a result of we play too few LANs in comparison with different scenes, and Apex has misplaced a whole lot of contact with the casuals.”
The 30-year-old added: “Different aggressive video games have a whole lot of casuals who’re followers of the aggressive scene. In Apex, it’s kinda the other, the place the casuals kinda hate the professionals, and solely the extra skilled gamers love us.”
Hakis’ answer is to make the esports scene extra current to the final playerbase with “extra engagement and extra in-game stuff.”
“We’re missing so much in-game, and an off-the-cuff participant just isn’t going to go to Reddit or Twitter to seek out info for themselves. They should kinda be blasted within the face with it, in order that they load up the sport and see in there what the aggressive scene is like.”
One other dividing issue, in line with Hakis, is that “professionals and casuals play two completely different video games.”
The participant defined: “The common participant simply performs pubs (common matchmade video games), and ranked is glorified pubs with factors. The aggressive scene performs one thing fully completely different with 20 groups alive at ring 4, rotations, technique and curated workforce competitors.
“It’s not simply turning off your mind and taking pictures your gun. Casuals have by no means skilled the actual Apex, and that’s an enormous drawback. There must be one thing to make the common participant really feel the adrenaline of being alive within the final circle, one thing extra targeted on the late recreation would bridge the hole, in my view.”
Like his fellow participant and rival Rhys ‘Zer0’ Perry, Hakis thinks that Apex Legends additionally lacks a few essential options which can be basic for sustainability. “Throughout the subsequent yr, I’d like to see extra help for organisations and gamers on the whole with themed skins in-game and crowdfunding.”
Alliance’s Good Begin on the ALGS 2026 Championship
Within the Group A vs Group B collection of video games, Alliance had a dominant efficiency, climbing the leaderboard with one victory, a 3rd place and different high 10 finishes. The second collection of matches, nevertheless, was not as robust, with solely a second place in recreation two and backside 10 finishes in all the remaining.
Getting on the correct facet of the bracket stage is essential on the ALGS Championship. It means extra probabilities on the closing and fewer fatigue through the elimination stage.
All remains to be on the desk for day two. There have been many surprising recoveries and downfalls in prior editions, due to the unpredictability of the battle royale style.
