ImperialHal and Snip3down clash over Apex Legends devs ignoring pro player feedback
Two of Apex Legends biggest names, TSM’s Phillip ‘ImperialHal’ Dosen and FaZe Clan’s Eric ‘Snip3down’ Wrona, have butted heads on social media over changes to meta ahead of the 2023 ALGS Championship.
With the biggest tournament of the Apex esports calendar fast approaching, Season 18 launched on August 8 with significant shifts to the meta, including an entirely reworked Revenant.
However, the change that has caught the eye of top pro players relates to survey beacons, and where they spawn. In competitive play, teams choose a POI (point of interest) to land at, and repeat it every game, to improve consistency in the otherwise random arena of a battle royale.
As of Season 18 though, all POIs now have an equal chance of receiving a Ring Console, Survey Beacon, or Crafting station, as opposed to more predictable spawns for these items previously. This caused frustration for ImperialHal, who called it a “mega nerf” to his team so close to a major event.
ImperialHal vs Snip3down
On August 16, Hal revealed he had spoken to a developer before the season launch, and advised them not to change the spawn rate of beacons.
“Had a call with 1 on 1 dev to discuss changes to Apex comp and I was asked if they should change the % on beacon for POIs and told them def not then prob [the] day after they changed it,” the TSM star said.
However, Snip3down disagreed, arguing that it was a positive change for competitive play, and that no team is entitled to a consistent survey beacon spawn at their POI of choice.
“There is no reason you should get 90+% beacon spawn rate and some of the best loot/zone POI’s in the game,” he argued, and said that this applied to all teams, not just TSM.
The debate devolved into a bit of a mudslinging from here, as Hal said his team simply gets the best POI because others, like Snip3down’s team, aren’t capable of fighting them for it.
Snip3down, a former teammate of Hal’s on TSM, mocked him for “crying” about devs not listening to him, and argued that the beacon change turned an “RNG factor into an even playing field for all.”
However, Snip3down did agree that he no longer finds it valuable to discuss his issues with developers, as years of doing so have led to little if any impact: “Everyone can have an opinion, no one is entitled to the results of it. I’d be just as fine if the change never happened.”
The ALGS Championship 2023 will be held in Birmingham, UK, starting September 6.
TSM and FaZe Clan have both locked in their spots for the event, and both will certainly view themselves as contenders for the top prize, although TSM will be favored overall, after their impressive 2nd-place finish at the Split 2 playoffs.