Features
Really using a vague definition of ‘assist.’
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Apex Legends has some good and some iffy challenges for gaining battle pass progress. One of the better challenges has players getting a certain number of kills and assists, as either will count. it allows a team dynamic where you don’t necessarily have to play the vanguard and rush fights, you can support teammates from long range, and you get the assist if they eliminate a player you have damaged.
Most LTMs (Limited Time Modes) during a collection event with a prize tracker will have a daily goal of 10 (and then an additional 15 for 25) kills or assists, and that’s mostly doable because just about every LTM takes place as a battle royale mode that still features the one squad against many gameplay.
However, the release of Control four seasons back changed things around, as it is 9v9, with each team comprised of three squads. The problem with this whole formula is that things still only happen within your squad of three during Control. If you are damaging an opponent and a teammate not on your squad scores the kill, you don’t get the assist despite doing some work toward that kill.
In some ways, I understand the squad separation because having to handle hearing the pings of five or eight other people sounds like a nightmare, but they are still on my team as we work toward the same goal.
It has been this way since Control debuted and has continued throughout other recent LTMs like Gun Run and the brand-new Team Deathmatch. With all of the new changes done to Apex Legends for its 16th season, I hoped this would be changed, considering how much Respawn Entertainment was hyping the Team Deathmatch mode.
While it’s not as egregious in a mode like Team Deathmatch, as only three potential players could rob you of challenge progress, the developers plan to implement Control as a staple of a rotating LTM mixtape. This means whenever you have to get kills or assists, you better stick next to a teammate on your squad or make sure you can eliminate an enemy quickly enough that it can’t get stolen.
Within one day of Team Deathmatch being in the game, Respawn had already pared it down to one round instead of two, made it 50 kills needed kills to win, and implemented a penalty for anyone quitting early to escape a losing match. Yet, the assists issue has been a thing since season 12, and nothing has been done to make it so that everyone on my team can participate in an assist.
This change would mean that players would be getting assists left and right, so If the devs wanted to increase the required assist amount or perhaps lower the assist time window in response, it would at least allow for a better chance.
It all comes down to the fact that being punished because the wrong player saw fit to help me or got in the last shot doesn’t feel even a little fair.
