In 2026, the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) remains one of the biggest battle royale esports on the planet, but the same old scoring headache refuses to pack up and leave. Back in Season 2, the cancellation of January's in-person LAN event dominated headlines, yet a quieter complaint was already bubbling under the surface: the points system used to rank teams and crown million-dollar champions. Fast forward to the current season, and players, fans, and analysts are still asking whether the ALGS rewards the right things. The answer is not black and white—battle royale esports has never cracked the perfect formula.
🎯 The ALGS actually uses three different scoring systems, which is enough to make a newcomer's head spin. The first is the standard match points system. Teams earn placement points based on how long they survive among 20 squads: first place gets 12 points, second gets 9, third gets 7, and so on. Each kill is worth one point, and the two totals are combined to create the leaderboard. After a set number of games—usually six—the team with the most points wins the tournament.
Then there is the ALGS Pro League system. Teams are awarded points based on their overall leaderboard placement. The top team gets 12 points, second gets 9, and so on. It does not matter whether a team finished second by one point or by 63 points; the reward is the same. That can feel brutally unfair, especially when a single pop-off game swings the standings.
Finally, major events use the Match Point rule. Teams play under the standard points system, but they can only win the tournament after reaching 50 points. Once a team hits that mark, it must win a round to be crowned champion. In theory, a tournament could go on forever or end in a handful of rounds. In practice, neither extreme has happened yet.
The main complaint is that the standard system can reward passive play. A team that hides, avoids fights, and sneaks into third place may score more than a squad that fights its way to eighth with a pile of kills. That is the exact opposite of what many fans want to see. However, fixing it is a tricky tightrope. Favor placement too much, and PUBG tournaments devolve into hide-and-seek. Favor kills too much, and Call of Duty: Warzone events become kill races where placement is irrelevant and teams sometimes avoid each other entirely to farm public players.
💥 That is where H1Z1 enters the chat. The game itself is a ghost town—at one point averaging just 81 concurrent PC players—but its esport scoring system is still remembered with a strange fondness. H1Z1 awarded one point per kill, then applied a placement multiplier to those kills. First place gave a 2x multiplier, second through fifth gave 1.5x, sixth through tenth gave 1.25x, and eleventh or lower gave a brutal 0x. There was also a 10-point bonus for melee kills, but that was wild enough to ignore.
| Placement | H1Z1 kill multiplier |
|---|---|
| 1st | 2x |
| 2nd–5th | 1.5x |
| 6th–10th | 1.25x |
| 11th or lower | 0x |
This system put serious weight on kills, but it also prevented the bottom half of the lobby from scoring anything at all. That should, in theory, stop matches from becoming pure kill races or encourage teams to ape every fight too early. Once the lobby is down to ten teams, though, would all strategy go out the window? That is the million-dollar question.
To get a sense of what H1Z1 looked like in practice, look back at the first match of the H1Z1 Pro League in April 2018. In H1Z1, there were 15 teams of five players. In that match, it took 15 minutes for the first kill to be registered. Then the floodgates opened. The lobby was reduced from 40 players to just the winning squad in about two minutes. A slow start is common in battle royale esports, but half the lobby dying in such a short window was, frankly, ridiculous. By comparison, in the final match of the NA ALGS Pro League between groups A and C, it took four minutes for the last 50 percent of squads to be eliminated—twice as long.
There are other factors to consider, but from the outset, H1Z1's system seems to promote risky fights and pushing opponents in awkward positions. Third parties and irrational decision-making are the bane of pro players' lives. A more kill-focused system might not be the best idea. Final circles in Apex Legends tournaments are already hectic enough; nobody wants the round to end before the final circle even forms because everyone charged headfirst at each other.
🤔 Could Apex Legends esports borrow anything from H1Z1? The 10-point melee kill mischief is a hard no. But the idea of rewarding teams that kill opponents and place well is worth chewing on. Wiping four entire teams is difficult in competitive Apex, but it is easier if a squad does not care about placement. Getting kills and finishing first is the most difficult skill to balance of all, and in principle, H1Z1 rewarded that.
Percentage modifiers for kills could work, but there would likely need to be a wider range of percentages to encourage players to focus more on placement once they reach the top ten. That could increase the disparity between teams that finish one place apart and make things less balanced overall. It is a classic trade-off: reward placement too highly and matches become boring as everyone hides in corners; reward kills too highly and tournaments become kill races where half the tactical nous is lost.
It is also worth noting that applying any scoring system retroactively is useless. Different criteria for gaining points will affect playstyles and potentially change results. For example, a kill-based scoring system would ensure the Wattson meta would never return, could potentially push Caustic out, and would probably see the slightly overpowered Rampage LMG used even more. In 2026, the meta has moved on, but the principle remains: scoring shapes behavior.
If no system can be applied retroactively, then it is almost impossible to know whether it would work. Still, a system that rewards teams for killing opponents and placing highly is necessary if the ALGS wants to crown the best teams as winners and create a fun experience for viewers. H1Z1's points reward kills a little too highly for competitive Apex Legends, which at the highest level is very tactical and methodical. But there are definitely ideas worth stealing from its innovative multiplier system.
🏆 Apex's points system needs to reward teams that do well in both kills and placement if it wants to truly prove who the best players are. Any decent pro roster can get a bunch of kills or place highly, but it takes a truly skilled and synergized squad to achieve both in the same match. It is a difficult line to tread, and H1Z1 does not provide a clear answer. Perhaps its innovative ideas provide food for thought for the head honchos at EA. Even if the ALGS stays the same, though, at least it will always be better than the Samsung Odyssey Invitational. That is one thing everyone can agree on.