Spacestation Gaming Exits Apex Legends Esports

Credit: Spacestation Gaming/EA

Spacestation Gaming announced Monday that it is leaving the Apex Legends esports scene. In a social media post, Spacestation Gaming Co-Owner & CEO Shawn Pellerin said that his organization would no longer be participating in Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS), citing a lack of financial support from publisher Electronic Arts:

“We are going to miss Apex Legends and watching our team compete, it really is one of the most entertaining esports,” he wrote on Twitter. “Unfortunately, how the esports market is currently, without a fair rev share partnership to help with sustainability.. it’s hard to justify continuing to invest.”

When asked if there was a possibility of Spacestation Gaming returning to the scene should EA make adjustments to revenue sharing, Pellerin simply said “yes.”

SpaceStation Gaming also released three Apex Legends players this week: Mark “Dropped” Thees, Joseph “Frexs” Sanchez, and Angello “Xenial” Cadenas, per a Dot Esports report.

The Salt Lake City, Utah-based esports organization officially joined the ALGS in 2019. While it is exiting the ALGS, Spacestation Gaming still fields teams in Rocket League, Rainbow Six Siege, Halo Infinite (it will be hosting an event this year as a partnered team in Halo Championship Series), and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Spacestation Gaming is not the only organization to quit the ALGS: At the end of December, Team Liquid announced that it was releasing its Apex Legends roster and leaving the league, citing a lack of financial support from EA. In a lengthy statement, the organization noted, in part:

“As with our experience in competitive PUBG, Team Liquid is an organization governed by the realities of this industry, both financial and social. On the financial side of things, the ALGS and how it is moving forward with monetization for teams simply doesn’t fit with our operations, and so we need to take our leave, though we take no pleasure in doing so. That said, we’re not leaving the Apex Legends ecosystem entirely. We will still be fielding content creators like Rogue and Acie who will stay on as our ambassadors in that community. We still have a huge love and belief in Apex as a game and we are only stepping away from the competitive scene.”

In the same statement, Team Liquid owner and co-CEO Steve Arhancet wrote:

“We are always going to be big fans of Apex Legends, of ALGS, and of our former players too. I can tell there’s a real love of Apex in the entire Team Liquid family, and so I wish that we could stay in the ALGS and make a long-term investment in our roster and the competitive scene. But we strive to only participate in games where the developers support the teams, so the teams can support their players in turn. I’m hopeful that, one day, competitive Apex could follow that model and that we could return to the competition then.”

Other organizations that have left the ALGS include Renegades, Cloud9, and G2 Esports.

The ALGS doesn’t currently offer a revenue share program for participating teams. Instead of sharing money generated from the sale of in-game items with teams, EA sells in-game bundles that contribute a set amount to the overall prize pool for the final. Typically these in-game items are only available for a limited time, with $5 USD of each sale going to the overall prize pool, but capped to a certain amount. Basically, outside of winning part of the prize pools during major events during the league’s calendar year and at the finals, participating organizations are on their own.

The Esports Advocate has reached out to EA for comment on this story.

Editor’s note: This story was updated with other organizations that have left the ALGS.