Anyone else notice there’s always that one squad in pubs during late game with 3 snipers with 3 blue shields. I assume these squads drop at the edge of the map, loot for 20mins only for them to get ran over by the squad with 3 red armors. Don’t be a blue boy. You won’t win or get better by playing too cautiously in pubs. The key to pubs is to not drop too hot nor too far away. This advice obviously does not apply to rank. Keep running, there multiple legends that can outrun and chase you. Keep hiding, there are two legends that has literally wall hacks and will spot you.

@Cheese9Man and @reconzero both make valid points. Just yesterday, playing with a friend we finished off the 3rd place team and then had to go hunt for the last squad. I said to my friend, I bet these guys are all setup in zone just waiting and sure enough they were. As we approached my friend shot one and goes "one has white shields". We laughed and then quickly wiped the whole team. No one had better than blue, all had snipers and no idea what to do when we just went at them from different angles. It was like we were the pred team that usually just walks though us.I do want to address 2 items though-"IT'S JUST PUBS" - This mentality is so cringe worthy and when people say it they come off as better than others. The only difference between pubs play and ranked is they give you points that do not actually mean anything to anyone. Game companies have discovered that instead of giving you meaningful things to enjoy and grind towards, they can use the idea of "competitive play" and de-ranking to keep people coming back. Think about this- What do you really get for all that time ranking? It isn't like you earn a living, get paid or get anything of any use for it. That push you make in pubs but won't make in ranked is bad no matter when you do it.Getting better- I agree with cheeseman in that if you never play aggressively, you will never improve your fighting and pressured looting. I also agree with recon that everyone will eventually hit a wall where they struggle to get better.I know it is kinda cringe to quote a streamer but most think the same way as Nick says in this video. For those that do not know, he moved from Warzone to Apex due to the cheating in Warzone so he was way behind the curve in skill. He spent months in Masters lobbies dropping contested, continuously fighting to improve his skill. Having watched the progression it was pretty impressive.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUma5Q3b-_w

Blue boys and girls | EA Forums

18 Replies

reconzero
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@Cheese9Man

I must respectfully contradict you. I do win this way. I don't get better FAST by playing this way, but I do get better. What I definitely don't do is fool the game into thinking that I'm a better player than I am, so I don't end up coming to the forums to complain about how sbmm is constantly ripping me off by putting me in matches with three stack predator squads. Yet another benefit that accrues to the cautious player. Though that's not why I do it.

And once again, I completely disagree that there is any compelling reason to play pubs differently than ranked. The object of the game, even in pubs, is to win. Find a playstyle that gets there most often and stick with it. For me that playstyle is caution. I'm not saying that I have to loot for twenty minutes before I get into a fight with the last squad, but when I'm executing at my best it often works out that way. The math says the more fights you get into then the more likely you are to fail. I'll allow that for a newer player failure may be a good thing as a learning opportunity, but my gamesense is already pretty respectable, and my mechanical skills hit their ceiling a long time ago. There just isn't anything to be gained for me in a hot drop or a panicked cross-map run through several populated POIs.

And if you have a blue shield AND a sniper weapon, and if you know how to use that sniper weapon, you'll have a purple shield in a bout five seconds, and maybe even red by the end of the match. In my experience.
hayhor
Hero
4 years ago
@Cheese9Man and @reconzero both make valid points. Just yesterday, playing with a friend we finished off the 3rd place team and then had to go hunt for the last squad. I said to my friend, I bet these guys are all setup in zone just waiting and sure enough they were. As we approached my friend shot one and goes "one has white shields". We laughed and then quickly wiped the whole team. No one had better than blue, all had snipers and no idea what to do when we just went at them from different angles. It was like we were the pred team that usually just walks though us.

I do want to address 2 items though-
"IT'S JUST PUBS" - This mentality is so cringe worthy and when people say it they come off as better than others. The only difference between pubs play and ranked is they give you points that do not actually mean anything to anyone. Game companies have discovered that instead of giving you meaningful things to enjoy and grind towards, they can use the idea of "competitive play" and de-ranking to keep people coming back. Think about this- What do you really get for all that time ranking? It isn't like you earn a living, get paid or get anything of any use for it. That push you make in pubs but won't make in ranked is bad no matter when you do it.

Getting better- I agree with cheeseman in that if you never play aggressively, you will never improve your fighting and pressured looting. I also agree with recon that everyone will eventually hit a wall where they struggle to get better.

I know it is kinda cringe to quote a streamer but most think the same way as Nick says in this video. For those that do not know, he moved from Warzone to Apex due to the cheating in Warzone so he was way behind the curve in skill. He spent months in Masters lobbies dropping contested, continuously fighting to improve his skill. Having watched the progression it was pretty impressive.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUma5Q3b-_w
OldTreeCreeper
Hero+
4 years ago
@Cheese9Man I'm very confused, are you talking about these lads??? 😃
swift07
4 years ago
@hayhor
When people refer to non-ranked lobbies as "pubs", they're not flexing or insulting others, it's just a way of saying it is not as competitive but more relaxed. And yes, I believe there is a difference between ranked and pubs, points being a part of it, but also, not as "sweaty". You don't see as many 3 stacks in pubs making strategic plays as if there was something on the line. Even if they are in a 3 stack, most likely they are playing more relaxed. That is in general, since you do have 3 stacks occasionally playing really sweaty. Also, it's not saying there aren't good players in pubs, cause there are, but again, not as sweaty.

I don't think ranked or competitive play was solely designed to retain players. Competition has always been present in everything we do.
Doesn't make sense to not have that in games. Also, it's good for the game. If highly skilled players just played pubs and they just kept stomping them every day, most likely they would lose interest and play something else. By providing a competitive ranked system, they will be placed in lobbies with others that are similarly skilled to them and have something to strive for. Competitive is also a venue for talented players to get discovered. Furthermore, competitive creates excitement for the rest of the community and promotes the game, which will lead to growth. If there was no competitive, this game would probably be dead or have a substantially smaller playerbase, which might not be feasible for any company. Even game companies need to make profit.

As for skills, people don't hit walls, they just get steeper hills to climb. Meaning that it will be harder for you to improve later in the game and you will not see drastic improvements but smaller ones. You will never stop improving. Once you believe that you have "hit a wall", you're mentally hurting your progression with content. Also, making a statement that you "hit a wall" seems a bit arrogant. If you've hit a wall, then why are you not a pro?

@cheesemanThat makes me laugh when I come across the final team(s) and they got blue shield on. I think to myself, "what were these guys doing all game??" Then I assume they are not very good at the game or casuals trying to get a win. Not sure why people play like that in pubs. The more you fight, the more you will improve. You learn from your experiences.
reconzero
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
@swift07

"[pubs] it's just a way of saying it is not as competitive but more relaxed."

I'm not saying that people should or shouldn't treat ranked differently from pubs. I'm just saying the difference is perceived and not real. The game remains the same whether players choose to behave the same or not.

"By providing a competitive ranked system, they will be placed in lobbies with others that are similarly skilled to them and have something to strive for."

SBMM is supposed to insure that players are placed in lobbies with similarly skilled teammates and opponents regardless of whether there are ranks to be seen or not, whether ranks are at stake or not. So ranks as a motivator I'll allow, but visible ranks as a necessary component of sbmm? Only as a check on whether sbmm is working properly or not, and you know what? It isn't. It never does.

"Furthermore, competitive creates excitement for the rest of the community and promotes the game, which will lead to growth."

This is true. I don't understand why, but I acknowledge that it is. I guess I was just born without the spectator gene.

"As for skills, people don't hit walls, they just get steeper hills to climb. Meaning that it will be harder for you to improve later in the game and you will not see drastic improvements but smaller ones. You will never stop improving. Once you believe that you have "hit a wall", you're mentally hurting your progression with content. Also, making a statement that you "hit a wall" seems a bit arrogant. If you've hit a wall, then why are you not a pro?"

So much to say here. Jump up into the air and measure how high you go. Then jump and measure again. Then keep doing it. Trust me when I say there will never be a jump where you just keep going up. For as long as you remain in the gravitational field of the earth then there is a limit to how high you can go. Period. A fixed limit beyond which you will never get. The high point is different for different people, and different people will experience different motivations for jumping, motivations which may have a material effect on how high they can go. But there is still a limit.

Aiming, movement, even to some extent game sense, are all like this. I don't call that pessimism or giving up. It's just acknowledging that human beings have natural limits. I'm not saying that we all hit them, and you're right to point out that even the best players have room for improvement. But at what cost? In order to gain what? There is such a thing as the law of diminishing returns and since I'm not a predator/streamer there's no incentive whatsoever for me to push beyond reasonable limits. This isn't a job, it's a game. It isn't (for me) supposed to be a grind, it's supposed to be entertainment. We don't have to call it a wall if the acknowledgement of human limitations offends you, but that's what it looks like to me. A huge, impenetrable wall.
swift07
4 years ago
@reconzerohow are you going to argue and say perceived, when lobbies are made up of different types of players and how they are played is different? Lower skilled players as a group spend more time in pubs then higher skilled. Even when higher skilled players play in pubs, they don't take it as serious. They usually try to get the most kills vs. trying to win the game. It's a different atmosphere and it's not something you can perceive, it's just what it is.

There is no SBMM on Apex. It's something like EBMM. 7 out of 10 games, you get very low level teammates and your opponents also have a similar make up. That's not SBMM, it's this horses*** MM created by Respawn in order to retain players.

Why are you comparing gravitational pull to improving your skills? You have no control over gravitational pull. You can always improve your skills, no matter where you're at in the game, it just gets more difficult later on, and the return isn't as substantial as it was when you were early to midgame.

Your last paragraph contradicts the previous. Nobody said you should spend a lot of time to keep pushing and improving. My statement was that you can always improve.
CCbathwater
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
The key to pubs is being the last one alive. Now, on ranked, drop hot, rack up kills, as you know, Hal won that game and got 0rp, so obviously killing half the lobby on ranked seems good for progressing on the rp ladder.
Ranked is dogwater btw.
swift07
4 years ago
@CCbathwater lol yeah, that is season 14 ranked. You have to have kills and then place top 5 to get points. Ranked is dogwater 😞
hayhor
Hero
4 years ago
@swift07 People do hit walls they can't get past in everything they do. If we didnt we could all be anything we want. Recons example is correct. You can work on jumping higher but you'll eventually not be able to get higher. This also applies to video games. We see people on here talking about all the things they try to practice to get better and they never even get decent.
swift07
4 years ago
@hayhorthere's always room for improvement, even pros improve. You can be anything you want, given that you put enough time into it, and you don't have a serious impairment.