Apex players from all over the world have landed in Stockholm this week carrying the aspirations of becoming crowned the next Apex World Champions, as they are set to compete in Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) the game's largest tournament culminating on May 1st with one team being crowned ALGS Champions.
The competition is set to kick off later today April 29th with the who's who of Apex professional competitors, but one deficiency almost every player taking part in ALGS in Stockholm has complained about, is the outdated and low-end hardware provided to them for the duration of the tournament.
It was announced April 21st on twitter by EA employee, Shahin Kanafchian that rigs would be comprised of 11th GEN Intel i7 CPUs and outfitted with RTX 3080 GPUs, only to have that promised recalled by what EA and the tournament organizers have said was a supply issue in obtaining the over 120 PCs within the timespan allowed for the tournament to remain on schedule for its May 1st conclusion.
Alot of professional competitors that aren't used to playing on such low specs are rather upset about the kerfuffle, as pros such as TSM Albralelie (who didn't pull any punches after the ALGS tournament organizers told him and his team not to expect to able to compete on the promised upgraded PC's) saying, "It was initially fixed, we were told new PCs would be provided. Today while all teams are boot camping, playing on high-spec rigs with great performance, we are told that PCs will not be upgraded." He added, “Pathetic from a company as large as EA.” regarding his disappoint with EA's planning.
While other pros have shared TSM Albralelie's opinions, others have spoken out themselves, with Alliance Apex Manager Pontus Bengtsson saying, “Sad and frustrating that all players will be limited on showing off their hard work they’ve put up over the past 2 years of ALGS competition. Big L.”
Now one may wonder why only 2 years ago, pros were able to compete on these specs that are today thought of as lower end PC's, but today are in an uproar.
Many long-time diehard Apex fans may remember the XGAMES competition in which RTX 2070's were the installed GPU's in competition rigs, that lead to a massive amount of bottlenecking and frame drops especially during the final circles, when many legends were using their abilities causing more visual rendering to have to take place, in turn causing the lower end pc's to drop frames and stuttering insufferably in comparison to what most professional Apex players are used to with their own personal PC's, which would in many cases be safe to assume are all much higher spec than those provided during the XGAMES and now the ALGS in Stockholm.
With the pro meta of apex legends being that of mostly ability legends, it will inevitably cause rendering issues during that all important final circle sequence.
This journalist (speaking of myself of course) also happens to play on a mid-tier rig comprised of a 9th GEN Intel I-9900k w/a RTX 2080 Super and I'm able to max out my fps at my monitors refresh rate of 165hz so it will be interesting to see how professional cope with the decrease in performance due to the lower end issued hardware.
Will the outdated setups, struggle to run the game on the settings players are accustomed to? Or will the level playing field, as far as hardware is concerned, be sufficient for ALGS Stockholm go off without a hitch?
For those wanting to see how this year ALGS unfolds, you can tune into any of your favourite Apex Legends streamer’s streams, starting today through May 1st. Alternatively coverage from twitch streamers such as Daltoosh and Respawn (apex's developer) host streams on Twitch during the competition, which I will be covering at length.
So, make sure you check back for the latest Apex news right here on BBB Gaming News.
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