During the Premier Series Grand Finals broadcast Blizzard China's Senior Director of Esports, Lawrence Chi, has revealed six teams that will compete in the APAC Premier. Three of these teams have been sourced from the Pacific Championship, two from APEX and one from Contenders, leaving only two spots that are yet to be announced. The teams that fill these spots will be decided by the results of the APEX Season 4 semifinals, as the date of the Apex final clashes with the regular season of APAC.
Flash Wolves, Blank Esports and ahq eSports Club are the competitors joining the fray from the Pacific Championship. As the second and fourth seeds respectively, Flash Wolves and Blank will compete in the Pacific Championship's playoffs starting on 6th October. Blank qualified for the playoffs in their last game by defeating ahq 3-1, with the APAC Premier providing ahq with an opportunity for revenge after being knocked out of playoff contention. Flash Wolves have had a smoother path to the playoffs, only dropping a single game to their non-Korean opposition. However, the team has looked shaky at times and is not as respected in the international community as they once were. Notably absent from the list of invited teams to APAC are Ardeont, who finished with a flawless 14-0 record in the Pacific Championship's regular season.
With both teams eliminated from the ongoing APEX Season 4 during the group stage, MVP Space and Afreeca Freecs find themselves free to compete in Shanghai. Afreeca Freecs have been unable to emulate the success they experienced in APEX Season 3 after the departure of Mano and DongHyun, falling to LuxuryWatch Red and GC Busan in the group stage of Season 4. MVP Space had a better showing in APEX this season, barely missing out on playoffs despite victories against Lunatic-Hai and Meta.
EnVision eSports are the only Contenders team flying out to play in the tournament. After a hot start in the North American side of Contenders, EnVision cooled off as they played more talented rosters. However, the team did lock down the third seed and will play FaZe at LAN later this month. EnVision's main tank during Contenders, numlocked, will not be joining them in Shanghai. The lack of other Contenders talent can be attributed to the incoming Overwatch League, occupying the attention of both players and teams alike.
These six competitors, alongside two additional APEX teams, will join the semifinalists of the Premier Series Grand Finals event, Miraculous Youngster, ViCi Gaming, Miracle Team One and 1246 in the APAC Premier. The event kicks off on 19th October and features a not-too-shabby ¥1,560,000 CNY (~$236,677 USD) prize pool.