Apex Legends: The Age Of The Camper

Apex Legends Season 2

The Birth Of The Camper

The initial Battle Royale fever may have quietened off, especially for those of us who played the original beta’s for PUBG and Fortnite, as well as the full release titles and Call of Duty’s and Battlefield’s takes on the play style but the only one that has truly had a candle held for me is Apex Legends. Apex Legends was released in February of this year as a free to play game and immediately took gamers and streamers by storm by their own take on the genre. For those of you who don’t know or haven’t picked it up, Apex Legends is created by the developers who brought us the Titanfall games and shares its universe with them as well. After borrowing concepts from several different FPS gaming styles they seem to have cracked the perfect blend of action, skill tactics and pure enjoyment. During its first week it reached 25 million players and became the most profitable Battle Royale game in its first month compared to the profits of all the others to date but we aren’t here to talk stats, profits and all the nitty gritty.

Like other Battle Royale games, Apex Legends has gone down the route of implementing seasons into its usual grinding playstyle as well as ranked leagues. The first season saw the appearance of Octane, a new character with agility based perks such as increased speed and his own backstory and lore. With the battle pass that accompanied the season 1 release players were rewarded for their progress with unique weapon and characters skins and they have carried this trend on with season 2. As well as the usual heaping of rewards for leveling up, season 2 also brought a major map change which has added a fresh lick of paint to the aesthetics and playstyles Meta’s that exist within the game during the opening months and first season.

Now several weeks into the second season “Battle Charge” and having a good look at it myself and speaking with other gamers who are partial to respawns take on a battle royale not everyone is pleased with every change that has been added. The first season did not really have active challenges that you could complete to boost your battle pass level but these have been added in the second season which personally I am very thankful, the map change is a welcome change as well as the new character called Watson. The issue at the moment is Watson and the ranked league point allocation system which rewards lasting to the top 3 more than killing the enemy. But let's start with Watson which is a defensive player, her tactical ability allows the deployment of electrical fences that damage and slow enemies and also make the other players reluctant to push you when you have a defensive position. Sure you can lob grenades in the building or position to damage or kill the occupants but she also comes with an ultimate ability that sets a device that acts similar to a tesla coil. All grenades and artillery strikes ultimate abilities from other players that enter its effective area are immediately destroyed rendering that tactic useless.

I’m skirting over her quiet quickly but it will all come back together don’t worry. Now with the ranked system you get a point for every kill you make in a game to the maximum of 5 points. Then if you reach the top 10 you gain 2 points, top 5 is 4 points, top 3 is 7 and the win will grab you 12. Sounds simple enough, 17 points a win with 5 kills shouldn’t be too hard right? Now at silver and above you have to pay an RP point to enter the game, so for example at platinum you pay 3 points to enter, top 5 with no kills gets you 1 point in platinum. Doesn’t seem too bad at least your making progress, however you can play aggressive, get 5 kills which is 5 points, die at 11th places and only make 2 points towards your next rank, seems harsh that the reward for taking out five enemins is only one point higher than camping to top 5 and getting taken out with zero kills. With Watsons defensive ability set, partnered with another defensive character like caustic who can block doors completely and any other 3rd you can get to the top 3 with no work, no kills and still come out better than aggressive players bagging yourself 4 points by camping………….

So with 4 tiers to each new rank, with a varying 40 points between the tier, as well as being matched with players on a similar skill level the games lovable run and gun mechanic has been replaced with a camping meta that I personally believe is better suited to the gillie suit wearing PUBG playstyle or the building making Fortnite style. Anyway rant over, for now anyway. The forums are full of people with ideas to re-balance the entire system and although respawn have yet to comment on any changes as of now they did previously state that with the ranked leagues they would be looking at in game trends, player feedback and the feel of the community as to how the game would be balanced and changed in the future so fingers crossed on that one.

Now I am going to slide slightly away from hard facts and in the video above which is the opening trailer for season 2’s launch you can see a laptop being used to trigger an overload that destroys a large tower at a location called repulse, that triggers the map change and has raised a few questions within the apex legends community. Although not confirmed it is now generally believed that the new legend to come to the game will be the one who caused the change and believed is to be called “crypto”. While mainly speculation there has been a mention of him in the backstory and lore for pathfinder as well as being spotted in one of the images of pathfinder. Appearing to be wielding a sword on his back and possibly having some kind of EMP like ultimate we can only guess for now. Whether the next character is released this season or we have to wait for season 3 is unknown at this point.

Authors Note:

Now most of my articles are based on game pre-views, reviews and backed with as many facts as I can grab but in this case for a game I love this is more a personal piece and I would love to hear any feedback from Apex Legends players for future articles.

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