It’s been less than 24 hours since Apex Legends Season 14 went live, and already there are concerns from the game’s top players about the decision to include the reworked Kings Canyon in split one of the new ranked season.
Respawn has made significant changes to Kings Canyon’s “map health” for Season 14, which includes overhauling some previously campy POIs and improving loot distribution. However, for a lot of top pro players, it seems that the rework hasn’t gone far enough to change the fortunes of what is deemed by most to be Apex’s worst competitive map. For Cloud9’s Zach ‘Zach’ Mazer, it’s clear that Apex Legends’ gameplay has evolved too much for Kings Canyon to be viable in the competitive space, although he says he admires Respawn’s efforts to cater to the competitive community with the map’s updates.
“Dear Apex, Please let KC die a nice death,” he says in a tweet. “I respect and admire your effort to keep KC around three years later, however, it doesn’t have a comfortable place in your game anymore. Love the constant efforts at making the map playable but we can’t find happy ground. Time to move on.”
Meanwhile, TSM’s Phillip ‘ImperialHal’ Dosen has posted a fake screenshot of a DM to the Apex Legends Twitter account asking: “How many likes to remove KC from ranked?” The fake 30,000 target has already been reached, so clearly there are plenty of others feeling the same way.
He then debates FURIA player and ALGS Championships MVP Jacob ‘HisWattson’ McMillin, who comes to Kings Canyon’s defence, saying that the reworked map “slaps” and that it is the change to Kill RP that has worsened the ranked experience.
“Yeah, KC slaps for sure,” ImperialHal replies sarcastically. “Kills are worth way more, the meta for legends all encourage W key/third party, small ass map, zone forces people to fight even earlier with less meds which also encourages W key.”
NRG’s Christopher ‘sweetdreams’ Sexton also weighs in, simply saying that Kings Canyon is “terrible”.
With Apex pros complaining about Kings Canyon and the change to Kill RP, the first Apex Legends ranked split of Season 14 might be a long one. However, it is safe to say that there are some rather reactionary takes out there, with all of this being voiced less than a day into the new season. The general consensus from casual players and those a bit further down the ranked ladder, however, appears to be that Kings Canyon is far better to play on.
If you’re thinking of diving into ranked, make sure you consult our Apex Legends tier list to see which legends you should be picking to rake in the RP on Kings Canyon.