One Apex pro is attempting to dance his way to Masters—literally

Bronze to Master challenges are some of the most well-known forms of content in any competitive shooter, and Apex Legends is no different. Pros and content creators have been able to climb to the highest ranks while imposing heavy restrictions on their own gameplay, such as FURIA HisWattson’s famous no armor climb to masters climb in season 16.

Twitch streamer and former Apex pro Nokokopuffs is the latest pro to attempt a bronze to masters challenge, though with a very different restriction on his gameplay.

Instead of limiting what he can or can’t do while playing ranked, Noko has decided to change his primary input from keyboard and mouse to dance pad, controlling the majority of his character’s actions through his real life movement.

Movement, healing, swapping through menus, ability usage and more are all controlled by Noko’s feet, which can be seen through his modified facecam setup, pointed at the floor for all viewers to watch as he moves in real life. The only actions not controlled by the dance pad are aiming, shooting, jumping, and crouching, which are still bound to his traditional mouse input.

Noko first started the dance pad challenge on June 5, streaming underneath the account name “ChaChaChampionn.” Despite the limitations presented by his unique input, Noko’s legend choice of Pathfinder allows him to keep up with his teammates without any problems, racking up damage and scoring montage-worthy kills with Grappling Hook as he climbs through the ranks.

Season 17 of Apex ranked has been touted by the community as one of the worst ranked experiences in Apex history from a viewership perspective, with many pros and content creators actively protesting against the changes that encourage survival over kills, generating a new passive playstyle in the form of “ratting.” 

Ratting involves players deliberately staying away from fights and hiding away in corners, trees, and buildings in an attempt to outlast the other squads. NRG’s sweet brought this playstyle to attention when he hit the highest rank of Apex Predator on the second day of grinding, all while dealing not a single point of damage to any enemies in the 50 games he played.

Many players have followed after sweet’s example, generating the highest amount of master players in all of Apex history, yet failing to retain their record-breaking player count in the past seasons, as the community finds itself bored with the current hide-and-seek meta of ranked.

Related: ‘Who the f**k wants to play?’: ImperialHal says Apex ranked changes are killing playerbase, viewership

Noko’s dance pad challenge shakes up the traditional viewing experience of Apex, providing a fun, wacky, and entertaining way to watch the game, in direct contrast to how the majority of content creators and streamers are playing this season.

Noko shows that despite the limitations, he can still compete with the very best, rising through the ranks while providing one of the most entertaining stream challenges in season 17.