Apex Legends pro league will pit PC players against aim-assisted console foes

Apex Legends pro conference volition pit Personal computer players against aim-aided console table foes

(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Electronic Arts declared the second year of the Acme Legends Global Series esports league today, which will feature new conference formats for pro and amateur players, and a $5 million unconditioned prize pool. But the most interesting news of all is that Year 2 will also bring soothe players into the action—non in its own league, but straight into the PC lion pitfall.

The gain of Xbox and PlayStation players testament bring "a whopping majority of our players and fans low-level the same competitive umbrella," Ea aforesaid. "The battle 'tween controllers vs mouse and keyboard is some to reach a whole new unwavering of intensity!"

Well, sort of, anyway. To help recompense for the inherent speed and preciseness advantages of a mouse and keyboard apparatus, controller players will use "Personal computer-value direct wait on settings" in competition, which is about 50% weaker than the console's default aim assist stickiness. In a recent update, Respawn added a on-off switch for all platforms to switch betwixt the console and PC attend to strengths. That little bit of help is most certainly needful to preserve some semblance of balance in battle, simply I find corresponding it will inevitably lead to questions and complaints (and plenteousness of attendant ugliness) if a player with a restrainer triumphs over a mouse-and-keyboard-stocked rival. (On paper, a PC player could use a controller as well, if they thought IT helped. For whatever reason.)

Crossplay, which enables PC and console gamers to experience together in multiplayer action, is becoming increasingly common and popular. It's still a rarity in pro esports, though, because of the need for a harmonious playacting field when actual money is on the bank line. When the Visit of Duty League announced that it was squirming from PlayStation 4 consoles to PC for its 2021 season, e.g., it ruled that players would continue to follow restricted to controllers in competition—no mouse and keyboard allowed, despite being on PC.

Disdain the clear potential for headaches, IT'll be very interesting to see how this cross-platform competition shakes out. My expectation is that M&K will dominate, which could force Respawn to fiddle with design-assist settings or perhaps even hive off console players entirely. But it's possible that the controller team will surprise us with some wall-to-wall tail end-kickings—which, over again, could prompt calls for action from Respawn if the impression is that console competitors are getting too much of an vantage from their controllers.

Course, information technology's possible that I'm being overly gloomy about the full-length matter: If this experiment works, information technology could lead to more widespread ill-tempered-political platform rivalry in pro esports. We'll find out in a couple of months—the ALGS Year 2 pre-harden qualifiers are set aside to begin in September.