Kings Canyon's Top Plays, Prize Money from Apex Legends Challenge

EA Sports brought Apex Legends into the world of competitive online gaming for the first time Tuesday with 48 players from around the world divided up into 16 teams fighting for bragging rights and prize money.

Players earned five points for each match victory and single points rewarded for each kill.

The teams will be competing for $200,000 in prizes, per Twitch.tv. Here are the full standings following the first half of the event, via Jerome Heath, Taylor Cusick and Rachel Samples of DotESports.com.

European Standings—Week 1

North American Standings—Week 1

There was real drama in the North American part of the competition. Kings Canyon ultimately prevailed over Reids Money Team by one point (420 to 419). The difference was Kings Canyon's 13-10 advantage in match wins, even though Reids Money Team had an edge in total kills (369-355).

Ninja, who was among the trio on Kings Canyon, tweeted out how good his fortunes have been when he competes in inaugural tournaments:

Ninja's fellow teammates, NRG Dizzy and King Richard, also expressed their stunned excitement at how close the final margin turned out to be (warning: contains NSFW language):

Even though Reids Money Team missed out on the top spot, the squad was taking a glass-half-full view of things because it was efficient enough with its weapons to earn a $50,000 bonus:

Tuesday marked the first day of the two-part event that will continue on Feb. 19. The 16 three-player squads were split evenly, with eight from North America and eight from Europe.

Respawn Entertainment CEO Vince Zampella told reporters prior to the start of Tuesday's event the early success of Apex Legends has made it possible for the company to get its feet wet in the world of online gaming competitions:

"We're thrilled to announce that since last Monday, more than 25 million players have jumped into the game, and over the weekend we had well over 2 million concurrent players at our peak. Like I said earlier, what a week!

"From everyone here at Respawn, thank you. The community's excitement for Apex Legends is electric, and we feel it here at the studio. We couldn't have gotten where we are without you and look forward to having you on this journey with us."

Given how dramatic the opening day of competition turned out to be with Kings Canyon escaping with a victory by the slimmest of margins, the bar has been set when the Apex Legends Challenge resumes next week.