Arenas Is Perfect For Apex Legends
What is Apex Arenas Mode?
For all that do not know Apex Legends prior to season 9 battle pass (released on 4th May 2021) was only a Battle Royale first person shooter. Alongside the season 9 battle pass releasing Apex Legends released a new game mode called Arenas. The new Arenas mode is a 3 vs 3 tactical shooter mode akin to Valorent and CSGO however leans more on the shooter element than the tactical element. It is a best of 5 rounds games however you need to win by 2 therefore if both teams have 2 round wins then it goes to a tiebreaker and whoever wins by 2 rounds wins the game, there are two tiebreakers and if no one wins by 2 rounds then its sudden death and whoever wins the sudden death wins the match. There is also buy system where you buy your guns and skills at the start of each round with the 'material' currency. You start with 500 materials, you can then gain materials with kills and winning rounds however the best way to get materials quick is to collect the materials from bins on the map during a round. One of the biggest differences with Apex Legends Arenas and Valorant / CSGO is that you don't get to keep you guns from round to round. There is also no ranked version of this mode yet but I am sure that will get added in time.
My experience with arena
I have played the mode everyday for a couple hours since it was released, I have won quite a few games and had a lot of fun playing. The games and rounds can be fairly quick however if you are facing a well matched team the game can take a little while longer. In my experience games on average last about 10 to 15 minutes. Most games tend to be quite fun, even if the match making is not quite there yet.
Why arena is a great addition?
Arena mode is a quick fun mode to play which is what I like personally, especially when I am waiting for friends to come online to play other games, I play a quick game of Arenas mode instead of diving into what could be a longer battle royale session if I don't die on the drop. For that reason I think a lot of other people will like too but I think it has a lot more to offer. For new players it is essentially a training ground for battle royale where you can learn weapons / legends movement / legend skills, although you could train directly in the BR mode, in Arenas as a beginner you don't have to worry about being third partied or finding decent loot. Being able to do the training in a small Arenas map allows you to take some of that to the BR mode.
For high level players Arenas won't be a training ground like it is for new player however it can still be a lot of fun. We have seen this in Lulu's Throwdown tournament where many high level players played Arenas for 4 hours and whichever team got the most wins won that part of the tournament, most of those players said they really enjoyed the mode and that part of the tournament. For top tier players this mode becomes more tactical as its about using different compositions of legends with different abilities and picking the correct guns in each round to match.
Arenas can be pretty addictive compared to the battle royale. In Apex battle royale, you have a 1 in 20 chance to win assuming match making was perfect where as in Apex arenas you have a 1 in 2 chance to win. We know match making is not perfect in both modes but you will inevitably win more in Arenas. I would say I am an average FPS player and in battle royale my Kill / Death ratio is around 0.82 where as in Arenas my Kill / Death ratio is 1.34. This is true for many other players out there as well where they will more a higher K/D ratio in Arenas compared with battle royale and alongside the win ratio being higher, it makes the mode addictive and fun.
What is not so good about Arena Mode?
Matchmaking at the moment is a bit of hit and miss, sometime you can match really well matched teams and other times the teams are really unbalanced. This could be because the data is not quite there yet to perform the best matchmaking as its a new mode and more data is required in which case I would expect the matchmaking to improve over time. It could also be because the rules of the matchmaking do not work and in that case we would need Respawn to implement a fix. Either way although this is a small issue right now I expect it to be fixed over time.
For some player, not having an objective in the game mode like in other tactical FPS games where you have to plant the spike / bomb (Valorent / CSGO) can puts those players off as there is no purpose beyond killing the other team and therefore the game is less tactical and more shooter. Personally I feel that it makes the game simpler and easy to get into, especially for new players. I am not sure adding an objective in this mode would make it better and instead might lengthen games which I think are about the right length at the moment.
Another issue for some in the arena mode is that because of the shields and the ability to regen your shield with batteries and cells, many arena matches tend to become poking sessions at the beginning and then a big push from one team or the other which in my opinion reduces the "tactical" part of the tactical shooter, however for current Apex Legend players I do not think this is an issue as they are already used to this in the battle royale mode and the only difference is that you cannot armour swap another player when they die.
Why is it perfect for Apex?
Apex Arenas has been pretty great out of the gate and is a fun addition to battle royale which only bodes well for the future of Apex. From EAs monthly earning call in February, it was mentioned that Apex Legends has 30% growth in new player year over year and EA/Respwan want the players to stay. The reason why I think Arenas is future of Apex is because it is easy to get into compared to the BR mode which will help new players play more of the game and come back to the game which is what all online games want. This is not to say that Arenas will become as big or take over the battle royale mode however will help those newer players to transition into the battle royale mode with less pains of learning which guns they like or which legends they want or learning when and how to use legend skills.
Are you enjoying the new Arena mode? Let me know in the comments below or on Instagram or Twitter. Also if you like this article or Apex follow me on Instagram or Twitter to see more and also to know when new articles come out.
