Shroud thinks Apex Legends will remove controversial ‘tap strafing’ trick

Popular Twitch streamer and ex-CS:GO professional Michael ‘shroud’ Grzesiek has suggested that the ‘tap strafing’ movement mechanic will be removed from Apex Legends by developers Respawn.

Movement is important in any FPS title, with the way players traverse around the environment another part of the skill gap that separates good players and those less skilled.

Apex Legends is no different, and has received considerable praise for its movement system, allowing players to slide down hills rapidly, or scale walls without issue.

However, some unintended movement mechanics have also made their way into the battle royale, including one known as ‘tap strafing’.

Tap strafing works on PC, by players wheeling round with mouse movements, and pairing this with a tap of the ‘W’ key. In response, your character, while off the ground and turning, will essentially wheel round much faster than normal, allowing you to stun enemies with your mobility. If players perfect the movement with the scroll wheel, they can perform rapid 180 turns.

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After having the mechanic explained to him by IiTzTimmy, shroud was impressed, but didn’t hold out much hope for the mechanic’s longevity in Apex Legends, especially after being shown it can be done in mid-air, off one of Octane’s jump-pads.

“Think about it this way,” shroud said. “B-hop while healing and sh*t got removed, this is definitely gonna get removed. It is really cool, I’ll take advantage of it. Dude it’s crazy… That will 100% get removed, for sure.”

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Players sussing out the best way to use a game’s movement is not new, and pushing a game’s mechanics is the natural response of its best players.

However, this mechanic appears to be completely accidental and not what the developers over at Respawn intended. We’re reminded of Call of Duty: Black Ops III’s ‘G-Slide’ exploit, which was promptly patched by the game’s devs thanks to its appearance at all levels of the game, even the pro scene.

Respawn are yet to signal their intents over tap strafing but, given its prevalence and strength once it’s mastered, it wouldn’t be a surprise if it was removed (or at least weakened significantly).