Apex Legends: What Are the Pros Playing in ALGS Pro League?
The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) kicked off their Split 2 Pro League last weekend. This is the first professional Apex we’ve seen since TSM took the Split 1 Playoffs finals last month in February. It’s also the first event that’s being played with the Season 16 patch, which includes the new classes system and the Season 15 Legend, Catalyst. Here are some of the Legend choices we’ve seen that are clear clues of where the Legend pick meta is pulling.
Catalyst is Meta
The most exciting Legend pick from the ALGS Pro League debut weekend is Catalyst, but it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. Catalyst has a very interesting and useful ability kit, but she also brings the next ring location, which is vital in professional play.
Catalyst’s three abilities are her ultimate Dark Veil, her tactical Piercing Spikes and her passive Barricade. Dark Veil is useful for cutting off enemy lines of sight and can be a nightmare for enemy teams to fight around if it’s dropped in the middle of a fight. Any enemy who passes through the wall will have their sight severely hampered and get reduced movement speed. But that’s not the only aspect that makes it so powerful.
Most scan abilities don’t pierce the veil, which puts Bloodhound and Seer at a seeming disadvantage. While your scans won’t go through the veil, if you’re skilled enough, you can still get scans while the veil is up. The first trick, which is much harder to execute without knowing if the ultimate is going up or not, is to get a scan off before the veil comes out. Otherwise, you’ll need to do something like get Seer’s ultimate on the other side of the wall.
Piercing Spikes is a great area of denial for Catalyst as anyone who walks over it takes damage and the spikes themselves take 300 damage to be destroyed. In a final ring situation with tight quarters, Catalyst's spikes can be very oppressive. And her final tool, Barricade, allows teams to hold space and keep cover with doors even if they’ve been blown off their hinges. We even saw a Catalyst separate and isolate a Crypto from his team by putting up a Barricade as he peaked out of the door, cutting him off from his squad for the kill.
Seer vs. Bloodhound
The Scan Meta has and will likely always be king in Apex Legends. Even with the recent changes to Bloodhound and Seer, one of the two continues to dominate the Legend pick rates in the ALGS. Seer had an almost perfect pick rate across the board, whereas we saw very little Bloodhound.
Both of these Legends lost their ability to use scan beacons to find out the next location of the ring. Bloodhound also saw some pretty big nerfs to their ultimate and their tactical scan. While Bloodhound can pick up multiple enemies on their scans, they only stay visible for one second now and a longer cooldown makes it hard to track their position.
Meanwhile, Seer, while he can’t get as precise of a reading on his enemies as Bloodhound can, is able to track their movements much more effectively with just his passive ability. When you add in Catalyst’s high pick rate, it’s also a lot easier for Seer to get his ultimate on the far side of her ultimate to negate the lack of vision your team has on the enemy. When you combine those two elements, Seer is a clearly better choice for your scan character than Bloodhound.
Controllers get New Life
No, not the sticks, the Legends class! The biggest change and shakeup to the meta was always going to be the class changes to Recon and Controllers. Every former Scan Legend who could scan ring locations, from Pathfinder to Valkyrie, Bloodhound to Seer -- all of them lost the ability. These were Legends who already had very high pick rates and extremely strong kits. Instead, the ring scan ability was given to Legends, who saw niche picks or little to no pick rates at all.
Caustic and Wattson, in the past, have seen their use in the ALGS. Caustic barrels used to provide excellent deployable cover but saw nerfs several seasons ago. And Wattson is a common counter to Gibraltar ultimates, grenade spamming, and all around a great pick for deterring teams from pushing easily fortified positions.
But Catalyst and Rampart are also part of the Controller squad and while ring location might not seem that important in your PUBs or even Ranked games, it’s vital in the ALGS Pro League.
Other Legend Picks
Outside of Seer, Catalyst and the importance of having a ring scan character, there were also still quite a few Valkyrie picks. Her ultimate ability Skyward Dive remains a very important tool for fast rotations and being able to get your team out of danger. Bangalore continues to be a popular pick thanks to her smokes and the new Assault class smart bin buff.
The ALGS Pro League continues every weekend on Saturday and Sunday until the end of May. Tune in on the official Apex Legends Twitch and YouTube Channel.
