Bring Back Arenas ( A love letter to Apex Arenas )

THE "TOO LONG, DON'T READ" FOR DEVELOPERS: Please bring back Apex Arenas because I unfortunately suck at every other game mode! Also, Arenas felt like chess but in a first person shooter format!

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FOR EVERYONE ELSE: In all my life as a gamer, out of all of the First Person Shooters I've played, I've never played a game mode like Arenas.

I play on PS4 and have Cross-Play activated. I was never good at dodging a hailstorm of bullets while getting a successful headshot like the PC players. I'm not really good with the "Teabag and Shoot" tactic -- a tactic that us console players like to use, which surprisingly works... sometimes. Battle Royale is out of my skill level, and I was never good at Battle Royales anyway. The Mixtape playlist we have doesn't feel fun, it feels predictable. If I win one match I know I'm going to lose the next one. Also, I'm not a good run and gunner in Apex Legends. I'm not good at getting into shooting attritions with opponents, and that's essentially what the Mixtape playlist is -- even Control feels like that! I could choose the Battle Royale mode to really digest everything Apex has to offer, but like I aforementioned, I'm not good at it.

But you see, that's where Arenas came in.

Arenas felt like a game of wits, rather than just another run and gun mode. Even if you weren't good at fighting other players, like myself, you could contribute greatly to a game mode like Arenas. No, I wasn't the best fighter in Arenas, but I feel confident enough to say that I was a "tactician" of sorts. I paid attention to my enemies, the way they moved, the way they operated. If I had enough time, I'd use the Text Chat feature and write a sentence offering advice and suggestions to my teammates. A few would take my advice and we'd win. A few would take my advice and we'd still lose. A few would ignore my advice and we'd lose, and of course, a few would ignore my advice and we'd win. My point is that sometimes my deductions and conclusions resulted in my team and I winning, other times we lost and I learned.

In fact, I got so good at Arenas that I was able to accurately predict when my team and I were going to lose! The countless matches I played gave me the skill to interpret our level of success just by looking at the way my teammates moved. If our first round started and my teammates weren't moving, it could mean that they took too long to figure out what weapon they wanted, therefore meaning they were inexperienced. If our first round started and I started heading in a certain direction, and then my teammates followed me everywhere like a mother duck, it meant that they didn't have enough conviction nor confidence in themselves.

I was able to read people, but on a whole other level ( I love videogames man )!

However, despite my newfound skill in Apex Legends, I did wound up with several surprises! I have won matches even though my teammates were inexperienced. I have won matches with teammates who were level 3's or 14's up against the level 300 players! As I said earlier, the Mixtape playlist in this current season is predictable. If I win a match I know I'm going to lose the next one, 98% of the time. Even though I was able to accurately predict whether or not I'd win an Arenas match, the very nature of Arenas was unpredictable. Arenas wasn't just about gun skill, it wasn't just about how well and how fast you could knock down the enemy; even in that situation, for example, are you going to finish off your opponent, or do you risk exposing yourself to getting sniped from the opposing team? I want to go into all of these situations that you need to be aware of, but I don't want to dedicate that much time to that. Arenas enthusiasts who read this post will understand exactly what I'm talking about.

I'll say this: Arenas was like a game of chess. It can go as fast or as slow as you wanted it! When I listen to gamers from the Fighting Games Community, and I listen to how they talk about the fundamentals with each spar, I can relate to them not because I'm good at Fighting games, but because I played Arenas and I understand what they mean!

I can say in confidence that I was addicted to Arenas! The game mode infuriated me to no end, but when I re-queued and was waiting for a match, that adrenaline rush always reinvigorated me!  

I skimmed through the r/apexlegends subreddit to see why Arenas was just removed. Some people claim it was because it had the lower player base out of the two modes... but I don't know how true that is. I rarely fought against the same people twice. Some people claimed Arenas had a hacking issue. Were there matches where I felt like the opposing team were hacking? Yes, a few, but there was no way I could prove that. The truth is that 98% of the time, if my team and I were losing, then it was, indeed, a skill issue; or because we were going up against PC players and we didn't have one of our own. If there was a hacking issue, I know the Respawn developers can fix it! Some people just boldly claimed that Arenas was just... bad? But that's subjective!

To be honest, Apex Legends doesn't feel fun to me anymore. I can say in confidence that I suck at Battle Royale, so I'm thankful that the Mixtape playlist is there, but even then I'm not having fun because I'm not a good shot. I can't contribute to a match like how I did in Arenas. In Arenas I felt like I had enough agency to win, lose, and learn. 

Someone might ask me, "Why continue playing Apex Legends if you're not having fun anymore?" 

Well, I'm not in the best place in my personal life at the moment. I'm actually in a situation where I don't know when I'll have the ability to play videogames once the month of May begins. Jobs have rejected me, and so on. I'm just taking everything in, feeling everything, trying to get in as many matches as possible before I potentially have to say goodbye to videogames for a long time, and that sucks because videogames are my passion. I'm a gamer, born, bred and bled, you know? It leaves a bitter taste in my mouth to not be able to feel that adrenaline rush I felt when playing Arenas one last time. 

I will say this though, it's actually because of Arenas that I understand my own potential a little bit better!

I have this idea of what I want out of my life. I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to get there, but I have some confidence that I can accomplish my goals, and be really good at that kind of lifestyle! No, I don't want to join the military because of Apex Arenas. On the contrary, it's because of Arenas that I realized how smart I can become!

Imagine. Imagine the same level of vigor, intelligence, problem solving, and tact I accrued while playing Apex Arenas but applied to my personal life! If I can be as smart as I was when playing Arenas, imagine what I can do in real life!

I love you Arenas! You infuriated me and invigorated me to no end. I'll miss you!