‘That’s going to change everything’: NICKMERCS thinks ALGS will look far different this year

It’s natural in a game like Apex Legends that a new character can fundamentally change the way the game is played at its highest levels. Wattson’s introduction created a pro scene heavily reliant on fast rotations and holding down places in the final circles. Valkyrie introduced a new style of fighting on the edge of zones and movement that previously wasn’t possible.

Catalyst is another legend that seems to have the potential to change up the pro scene, and NICKMERCS sees it coming before pro teams really have a chance to adjust to a new character fully.

“That’s going to change everything, if that really blocks Seer’s stuff,” the FaZe streamer said about Apex’s newest legend. “[But] you don’t know until it actually changes. It is going to be tough, though, that it comes out two days before Oversight finals and five days before Pro League.”

The Apex Legends Global Series isn’t any stranger to seeing meta shift and change over the course of a Pro League season, rather than letting a meta settle before starting up pro play. Last year, the Valkyrie-Gibraltar-Caustic meta that happened only became particularly popular halfway through Pro League’s first split, and even then, teams were running their own variants with characters like Wraith and Ash. By the time the ALGS Championship rolled around, many teams had abandoned Caustic altogether, while FURIA introduced the world to the game’s hidden boss: Seer.

However, with Catalyst’s abilities seeming like a good counter to Seer and other scan characters that can reveal enemy locations, the new legend represents an interesting wrinkle that pro teams will have to contend with. Almost every top team in many regions has adopted Seer into their team compositions. The question when it comes to Pro League will be how heavily Catalyst affects Seer, and if it’s worth it to continue running the character.

It’s also possible that teams might try to run Seer together alongside Catalyst. But it’s difficult to tell just how the pair’s abilities interact, and whether Catalyst’s ultimate might block friendly Seer scans, as well as enemy ones. If that’s the case, it seems unlikely that the two will be played in tandem.

Only one thing is certain: the new character will definitely create some surprises on Apex leaderboards.

“That’s gonna make the tournament placings so fucking different,” NICKMERCS said after watching the Eclipse launch trailer. “It’ll be all about who can adapt, and this is gonna be something that we’re have to get accustomed to.” 

The new season of Apex, along with Catalyst, releases on Nov. 1. The ALGS kicks off on Nov. 6.