[GameSpot] - Apex Legends' Tap-Strafing Strat Will Be Removed In Patch 10.1

[343iBot]

Tap-strafing, a player-created, high-skill level movement strategy in Apex Legends, will be removed from Respawn's battle royale. On Twitter, Respawn revealed that tap-strafing will be removed in Patch 10.1.

Tap-strafing is a move that allows players to turn on a dime, and can only be done on mouse and keyboard. The move involves a few steps, and includes binding forward movement to up or down mouse scroll.

1. After doing a slide jump, players must hold down a strafe key for whichever direction they want to go.
2. Players then must scroll the mouse wheel up or down while holding the strafe key but without moving the mouse, which will cause the player to be pulled diagonally in the direction the player is strafing.
3. Finally, players need to move the mouse in the direction they are strafing while scrolling the mouse wheel and holding the strafe button to be propelled forward.

The mechanic is not an intended feature, but is a skill players learned to do on their own from playing the game. Numerous competitive games, whether it's Rocket League or Call of Duty, often times see players using mechanics that the developers may not have planned for or even knew existed, but become adopted by the community and integral gameplay components at certain skill-levels. Tap-strafing has all kinds of advantages for players who have learned how to do it consistently, and since it's only doable on keyboard and mouse, has been a source of complaints for those playing on consoles with cross-play enabled.

But the mechanic will soon be removed, with Respawn saying the movement quirk is "inaccessible, lacks readability/counterplay, and is exacerbated by movement abilities."

After much consideration and debate, we've decided to remove tap-strafing from @playapex in patch 10.1.
Our reasoning: It's inaccessible, lacks readability/counterplay, and is exacerbated by movement abilities.
The next patch notes will include a more detailed note about this.

— Respawn (@Respawn) August 31, 2021

As outlined above, the actual steps to pulling off a tap-strafe are a little complicated, and is typically only used at high-skill levels, bringing in to question why, exactly, Respawn feels the need to remove it entirely after the move has become a key part of the game among top players. More details on what exactly the removal of the mechanic means for Apex Legends will be coming with the arrival of the game's next set of patch notes. Judging from Twitter reactions to Respawn's announcements, fans have a lot to say about the subject, with many calling on Respawn to keep the feature in the game.

It's not the first time Respawn has removed unintended mechanics from Apex Legends. Way back in the game's first season, Respawn removed the ability to bunny hop heal, which saw players essentially bypassing the slowdown effect that administering a healing item usually gives. In Season 5, Respawn removed the ability for players to zipline jump, adding a cooldown for how quickly players were able to reattach to ziplines. Both moves were used by higher-skill level players to get a leg up on the competition in ways the developers didn't initially consider.

Apex Legends Season 10: Emergence, is now live, adding new character Seer, map changes to World's Edge, weapon and character balance updates, and more. The game's upcoming 10.1 update will be the first major patch of the season.

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