Respawn Entertainment has unwrapped the December edition of the Apex Legends Creator Tournament Series and announced three more events happening this week. However, the tweet from @PlayApex did not generate excitement; instead, it upset a large segment of the gaming community, who used the announcement as a platform to air their grievances regarding cheating, server problems, and the developers’ neglect of the core issues of the game.
In any case, the official statement is that Apex will keep on hosting the Creator Tournament Series. This tournament consists of very competitive events that take place in the form of competitions involving the most popular streamers and content creators whose participation is illustrated in the adjoining graphic. It’s nothing but standard promotional stuff, right? However, the real news is not in the announcement; it is in the replies. And it is a pretty rough read.
The comment area becomes a very immediate and intense eruption of rage. The higher-ranked response reads only FIX THE CHEATING PLEASE and comes from a player called Nick, a sentiment which can almost be heard everywhere. Another player, FlamingApes, called the game ‘dogshit’ and claimed that there is a hacker in every casual lobby. DelusionalMule wrote about ‘pred players on pc’ who are streaming while using ‘desync software,’ ‘softaim,’ and wallhacks, even tagging Respawn directly. It is not several people voicing their complaints, it is an overwhelming multitude of voices.
Some gamers are so straightforward that they question Respawn’s intentions for concentrating on ‘bullshit creator tournaments’ while the game is, to their mind, broken at its very core for a lot of users. “Who wants this kind of content?” posed WoHype, hitting the spot of developer’s losing sight of their priorities. There is a strong sense of the community feeling neglected, one user, Gregory Higgs, rebuking the developers as ‘hacks’ more interested in selling ‘$300 skins’ than fixing the game.
But cheating is not the only problem. The discontent of players covers a wide range of issues that still remain unsolved. The performance of the servers is the most serious issue, probably, with Snowyxy_ saying that he/she is ‘PLAYING POWER POINT PRESENTATION EVERY GAME.’ Some others, like harakiri, are begging for better cross-play options as the servers in areas such as Southeast Asia are ‘dead’ for console. Moreover, there are calls to return with permanent playlists for Arenas and Solos, requests for ranked badges, and fixes for console ranked, which player AJ Joul states ‘matter too.’ Even the tournament details themselves had a hiccup, with creator RynoLive_ noting that the date stated for his charity event was incorrect—it is actually on the 13th for St. Jude’s.
All the noise did bring about some, and I do mean very few, cheerful notes. A user conveyed best wishes for the competitors, and another one spotted a ‘blue bear’ in the graphic, which is, hmm, something. Still, they were completely eclipsed by others. The pleas for action concerning cheating and technical difficulties resonate so forcefully that they are almost the only thing that can be heard.
Such a situation puts Apex Legends in a very peculiar position. On the one hand, they want to nurture a competitive community and showcase creators, which is essentially a normal step in the long process of developing a live-service game. But, on the other hand, a large section of their player base is so disenchanted with the core gameplay issues that they take any other focus as a diversion or an insult. When players say they have not played the game ‘for months’ because of cheaters, a new tournament schedule is simply not regarded as a big deal.
What is it going to mean? Well, it amounts to nothing less than a classic case of communication gap scenario. Respawn’s marketing is oriented around events and content, while a sizable portion of the community is shouting about the very foundation that the game is built upon. The replies disclose a player base that is convinced its primary concerns—fair play and stable performance—are being ignored. It is a hard time for any developer. Organizing tournaments is great and all, but if your players do not feel they can have a fair match on a stable server, then all that esports stuff tends to sound kind of hollow, you know?
So, yes, Apex has a new tournament series. However, the primary focus should not be on the tournament itself but on the enormous and unanimous demand from players who are telling Respawn to fix their game before they do anything else. The ball is really in their court now. They can keep promoting events, but if they want to win back the community, they will need to demonstrate that they are not just paying lip service to this feedback but are actually listening. What players are eagerly waiting for are actions like significant anti-cheat updates and server upgrades in the popular battle royale genre. The community’s frustration is palpable on platforms like PlayStation and Xbox.
