“Nobody else really matters”: Alliance Hakis is confident going into the ALGS Championship 2026

Alliance is the most consistent team in the Apex Legends competitive scene, and John ‘Hakis’ Håkansson has been the face of the European powerhouse since 2020. 

However, whilst the team is consistently a threat at every major ALGS event, Alliance has yet to lift the game’s biggest trophy. Now, with the ALGS Year Championship underway in Sapporo, Alliance and Hakis feel more confident than ever.

Speaking to Esports Insider Italy before the event commenced, Hakis said: “Overall, we feel very confident. We are probably the best-performing team in scrims. 

“We’re prepared, almost perfectly, and our biggest obstacle will just be the Match Point Finals. We’ve been a very consistent team for the past two years and have gone top three almost at every event, earning more money than every other team in the world, so we’re the best performing team, and we just want to close it out by winning a trophy.”

Heading into such an important event, squads spend months testing team composition, rotations, loadouts and circle-by-circle decision making. Still, some elements cannot be predicted, especially during the Match Point Final.

“A lot depends on what gets banned,” Hakis admitted.  “We’ve had multiple variations of the ban system in the match point scrims. Some days it was very beneficial for us, other days it got very aggressive, so it depends on which teams qualify. Overall, we’re very confident, so we’re chilling no matter what.” 

When asked if there’s any particular team Alliance is afraid of, the 2024 Esports World Cup winner, confidently said: “Nobody. We’ve never had any threats; we only ever focus on ourselves, and if we play our own game, we do well. Nobody else really matters. 

“Our play style is still the same: we gain a lot of points every game and try to close it out on match point with a win. I’m very confident of a top-three finish, and it’s going to be a little RNG for match point, but that’s the format in general.”

Not only is the Swedish player one of the most consistent pros in the Apex Legends scene, but he’s also been with the same team for more than five years. 

As such, he’s the perfect candidate for an in-depth analysis of what Apex Legends has achieved and what it needs on the competitive front. 

“I’ve had an amazing experience in the competitive scene of Apex”, said Hakis. “I do look at other games, and I hope we can take a little bit from them and bring it here. More LANs, for example, because we play too few LANs compared to other scenes, and Apex has lost a lot of touch with the casuals.” 

The 30-year-old added: “Other competitive games have a lot of casuals who are fans of the competitive scene. In Apex, it is kinda the opposite, where the casuals kinda hate the pros, and only the more experienced players love us.” 

Hakis’ solution is to make the esports scene more present to the general playerbase with “more engagement and more in-game stuff.”

“We’re lacking a lot in-game, and a casual player is not going to go to Reddit or Twitter to find information for themselves. They need to kinda be blasted in the face with it, so they load up the game and see in there what the competitive scene is like.”

Another dividing factor, according to Hakis, is that “pros and casuals play two different games.” 

The player explained: “The average player just plays pubs (regular matchmade games), and ranked is glorified pubs with points. The competitive scene plays something completely different with 20 teams alive at ring 4, rotations, strategy and curated team competition.

“It’s not just turning off your brain and shooting your gun. Casuals have never experienced the real Apex, and that’s a big problem. There should be something to make the average player feel the adrenaline of being alive in the last circle, something more focused on the late game would bridge the gap, in my opinion.” 

Like his fellow player and rival Rhys ‘Zer0’ Perry, Hakis thinks that Apex Legends also lacks a couple of very important features that are fundamental for sustainability. “Within the next year, I’d love to see more support for organisations and players in general with themed skins in-game and crowdfunding.”

Alliance’s first day at the ALGS Championship, which concluded earlier today, was a good one. Points-wise, the European team is fourth behind ENTER FORCE.36, Citadel Gaming (this year’s surprise team) and Team Falcons. 

In the Group A vs Group B series of games, Alliance had a dominant performance, climbing the leaderboard with one victory, a third place and other top 10 finishes. The second series of matches, however, was not as strong, with only a second place in game two and bottom 10 finishes in all the rest.

Getting on the right side of the bracket stage is crucial at the ALGS Championship. It means more chances at the final and less fatigue during the elimination stage. 

All is still on the table for day two. There have been many unexpected recoveries and downfalls in prior editions, thanks to the unpredictability of the battle royale genre.