Ubisoft on Jun. 8 announced the starting date for Stage 2 of the APAC League, as well as a significant mid-season format change.
After the issues with latency that saw Korean and Oceanic teams impacted greatly during the Stage 1 APAC Playoffs, Ubisoft has opted to remove the APAC Playoffs entirely for Stage 2 of the 2022 season.
Instead of APAC Playoffs, the top two teams from the APAC North and South Divisions will head directly to the Six Major.
A Ubisoft-statement acknowledged the issues and attributed them to the vast size of the APAC geography, before stating that the decision was reached after considering feedback "from pros and fans" and follow-up discussions with our partner organizations".
The prize money and SI Points allocations will also shift for the upcoming stage.
The prize money for teams in APAC North and South will now be allocated as follows (bracketed figures are from Stage 1):
- 1st place: US$20,000 (US$15,000)
- 2nd place: US$10,000 (US$7,000)
- 3rd place: US$6,000 (US$5,000)
- 4th place: US$4,500 (US$4,500)
- 5th place: US$3,000 (US$3,000)
- 6th place: US$3,000 (US$3,000)
- 7th place: US$2,000 (US$2,000)
- 8th place: US$1,500 (US$1,500)
The top four teams at the APAC Playoffs also earnt US$10,000, US$5,000, US$2,000, and US$1,000, respectively.
The SI Points, however, will see much more significant changes than before. In Stage 1, only the eight teams at the APAC Playoffs were rewarded with SI Points; 225 SI Points for the top five and 180, 140, and 115 SI Points for the bottom three.
Now, however, the SI Points allocation in both APAC North and South will be as follows:
- 1st place: 215 SI points
- 2nd place: 215 SI points
- 3rd place: 205 SI points
- 4th place: 145 SI points
Fnatic coach Jayden "Dizzle" Saunders and Dire Wolves coach Odin Hempel expressed dismay at the new SI Point allocation, noting a disparity between their region and the NA and EU regions.
They and other APAC pros also expressed their concern that while the latency issue was resolved for APAC North teams -- they now only have to play teams from Korea or Japan -- it is still present for APAC South, where Southeast Asian, Taiwanese, and Oceanic teams play each other weekly.
Stage 2 will start on Jun. 15 for APAC North and Jun. 16 for APAC South, with play days every Wednesday and Thursday, respectively.