Thank You Respawn

Cool links, thanks for sharing, nice to see people going so deep with research.

As for Apex and AA - it is quite clear by now that:

• majority of player base were consoles in Apex -> clearly Apex has to tailor towards them
• majority of players are so called "weekend gamers" aka they will never invest in training or grinding much -> to maintain such community you need to "dumb game down" aka make it an "easy mode" -> in comes AA, scripting, Steam input (turbo) etc.
• many asked from Crossplay (at the beginning) so Apex did it, now people hate that because of mostly hacks or abuses where PC players get into console lobbies (which historically have been much lower ELO / skill level)

I bought a controller for PC, almost gave it a try to master it because I wanted to test myself how much better in close range fights and with Wingman I can be on controller vs MNK, but similarly as you I have decades of MNK gaming history and controller just feels like disability for me.

On one hand MNK allows much more (more binds, configs, macros, more precise input, potentially faster input (marginal but still)) at the same time it requires so much more in terms of training, setting it right, having right software, down to having the right desk and mousepad which is all not a factor for Controller where you just set up senses and move on playing like a pro.

Long story short what these researches lack is deeper dive into how much time MNK players have invested in the game -> see correlation with KD and other stats.

From my experience alone I can say that I boosted my KD by ~20% in just last few seasons via:

• hard commit to aim training = doing at least 50h per month
• buying new mousepad(s) and new mouse skates
• adjusting my hardware alignment (desk, monitor, keyboard)
• buying new headphones

It is sad that people can't see they accuracy in game, which I would love to e.g. Valorant does great job of that. Because in aimtraining in Novice / Intermediate / Advanced levels my stats are:

1. static clicking = 90%+ in most cases 95%
2. novice tracking = 60%
3. Intermediate tracking = 40-50%
4. Advanced tracking (basically no game has such hectic and fast movement changes aka RIP Quake) = 25-30%
5. Various secnarios with dynamic movement and tracking / clicking combo = around 40-60%

So it is weird to see that top players in Apex on MNK are at <40% based on articles quoted. In comparison top dogs in Quake (much faster phase game) showed easily 40%+ accuracy with tracking gun.

Long story short: Apex is not tailored for MNK, there are loads of hackers with controllers / controller exploits (actually playing MNK with AA), if you compare "true legit controller player" man you can tell the difference and even MNK who is weekend gamer will 90%+ time win fights vs them if they use a bit of their brain power and know MNK advantages and Controller disadvantages. On the other hand if you stand in the open and try to outshoot Controller Wingman player with MNK Wingman player...good luck to you beating software :P