Apex is set to aggressively expand this spring with the release of a phone game and Arenas mode
The is The Final Circle, a newsletter about Apex Legends
Apex Mobile
Apex Mobile is coming to phones as early this spring, in a series of closed beta tests available to players in India and the Philippines. It’s easy to dismiss mobile shooters as jokes: impossible to see enemies on those tiny screens, with clunky thumb controls and low frame rate. But phone shooters have been competitive and beloved for a long time now in much of the world.
To put it in perspective, the incredibly popular PUBG MOBILE (that’s apparently how it’s spelled, in all caps, which I do not endorse) has a much bigger esports scene than Apex, with $14 million in the 2021 prize pool, compared to the $3 million ALGS. But in September of last year, the app was banned in India, in what I believe was its most popular region—leaving a huge market opportunity for companies that can get their mobile battle royale app past Indian government regulation. Without ties to China, the source of India’s anxiety about PUBG, Apex Mobile should have a much easier time. And from what we know about global esports, it wouldn’t surprise me if Apex Mobile had a thriving competitive scene soon after its release. Interestingly, another of EA's flagship shooters, Battlefield, made a similar announcement this week. DICE is hoping to have their standalone mobile game out in 2022.
Apex Legacy will introduce a new gameplay mode
Season 9 drops on May 4th, apparently so different from a normal update that it gets its own name. It’s called Apex Legacy, and probably the biggest reveal was the introduction of a new mode, Arenas, which we still don’t know a ton about. Me and more than 170,000 other people watched the trailer premiere on YouTube (link below), where it’s racked up more than 4 million views in a couple of days. It was a beautiful piece of work but light on details; all will be revealed on Monday, in an additional trailer solely about Arenas. It’s safe to assume, however, that Arenas will be a kind of deathmatch, played on a smaller map and with fewer players than the battle royale mode, and that’s made some pros very excited. In the future, Apex might support competitive scenes across modes: ALGS commissioner John Nelson said as much in an interview with Ben Sledge at The Loadout.
Warzone hits 100 million
Apex celebrated 100 million players last week—this week, it was Warzone’s turn. The Call of Duty battle royale also reached 100 million players, and did it in about the half the time: while it took two years for Apex to hit that milestone, Warzone reached it in about a year. For a further comparison, Fortnite enjoys almost half a billion players.
At long last, a bug fix
Respawn patched an exploit that sounds a lot like what was preventing GLL’s Masters Spring from proceeding in the EU. They successfully played a round of the competition yesterday after a two-week delay caused by the exploit locked certain players out of their game.
Rainbox Six is heading to Paris for their LAN
Hunter Cooke over at Dot Esports reports that the postponed Six Invitational, essentially Rainbow Six’s version of the ALGS championship, is headed to Paris for a LAN after all. It had been indefinitely delayed from February due to Covid concerns; now travel restrictions on Latin America mean that several top teams may not be able to attend anyway.
Rocket League Championship is online-only
Of course not every developer-led competitive ecosystem has decided LAN play is the way to go this year. Rocket League’s own $1 million Championship will be played online and its prize pool is separated into regions, just like Apex.
Renegades sign North American free agents
The established esports organization Renegades signed PowPow, bowswer, and Sauceror, who were previously going by the name PB Sandwiches. The Twitter account Competitive Apex pointed out that with Renegades entering the scene, the top ten teams in NA by ALGS points are all signed to professional organizations.
What to watch this weekend:
Who gets to compete for a slice of that $1 million in the ALGS Championship? Lots of space in the modified format is still up for grabs—22 teams will punch their Championship tickets with no other qualification but a good performance in the Last Chance Qualifier this weekend. Catch the official broadcast this Sunday, April 25th: North America - 2:00 PM PT / 5:00 PM ET. South America - 6:00 PM BRT. EMEA - 6:00 PM BST. APAC North - 6:00 PM JST. APAC South - 3:00 PM SGT.
As usual, I’ll be tweeting about the tournament this weekend. Catch the discourse @UR_Scrubb.