TSM ImperialHal explains the one thing keeping mouse and keyboard alive in Apex

The debate on the best input in competitive Apex continues, but TSM hybrid player ImperialHal offered his perspective on the reason mouse and keyboard is able to remain in ALGS Pro League. The answer is one that many console players won’t want to hear.

ImperialHal suggested that if Bangalore was removed from Apex, “mouse and key would be dogshit.” The discussion took place on Oct. 12 on ImperialHal’s Twitch channel. He goes on to say that the “only reason mouse and key did well at the Championships was because of Bang.”

Bangalore is a Legend who has risen in Apex Pro League popularity over the last year of ALGS play. With the nerf to Seer and the rise of controller players entering the scene, the switch to Bangalore felt like the only viable option as her smoke disrupted aim assist. 

Hal also explained that he “put two and two together” and realized how overpowered aim assist is with Horizon and linear controls, which was the main reason he switched from mouse and keyboard to controller.

The strength of Bangalore was further demonstrated by FURIA coach PVPX on Twitter. Although the smoke completely removes aim assist for controller players, its strength has its own limitations. PVPX explains that “the indicator that triggers when the aim assist starts working is the smoke ‘hissing’ sound stopping.” Because of this, the smoke acts as the only viable way to reduce the strength of controller aim assist at close range, but there are ways pro controller players can work around this counter.

The Bangalore pick is often used by mouse and keyboard IGLs such as Dark Zero’s Zer0, XSET’s Nocturnal, and former NRG IGL sweetdreams. In ALGS year three, Catalyst was used by many teams to counter (and sometimes synergize with) Seer’s ultimate, and the switch to a Bangalore-Catalyst comp following the Seer nerfs means that the overall visibility is lowered to counter controller aim assist in endgames. 

Only a handful of teams remain successful in ALGS with a full team of mouse and keyboard players: 100T, BLVKHVND, FNATIC, to name a few at the Championship. But even 100 Thieves dropped their entire roster consisting of three mouse and keyboard players following the Championship LAN, while FNATIC dropped two of theirs.

Taking a look at Reddit user _sinxl_’s analysis of who had the highest kills in the ALGS Split One playoffs, evidence showed that sweetdreams, ImperialHal, Zaine, nafen, and Verhulst had the most kills. Three out of five of these pros are controller players. Mouse and keyboard players have higher mechanical skills with tap-strafing, fast looting, and better movement, but fighting power remains firmly the territory of controllers and aim assist in pro Apex.

It seems clear that regardless of how many hours a player grinds Apex for, a controller user has a much higher chance in killing an enemy due to their aim assist advantage.