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The Apex Legends Season 14: Hunted update went live less than 24 hours ago and players are already expressing their concerns about Respawn Entertainment’s decision to include Kings Canyon in the map rotation for Split 1 of 'Hunted'. Kings Canyon was the original map that was released alongside Apex Legends in 2019. However, it has never been the go-to choice for competitive games. Many pros including the popularly dubbed CEO of Apex Legends – Team SoloMid (TSM) Philip “ImperialHal” Dosen – are having their doubts about the reforged Kings Canyon map. ImperialHal even joked about asking Respawn to remove the map completely from ranked mode.
Introducing the new Kings Canyon, Respawn Entertainment wrote, “In Season 5, Skull Town and Thunderdome were sunk by a massive explosion caused by Loba. Now that the Salvage operation is complete, the Syndicate has rebuilt the area for the Apex Games. Dredging machines have refilled the space with sand from the ocean floor, and a new battleground has been rebuilt with the iconic skull as its centerpiece.”
ImperialHal shares thoughts on the new Kings Canyon
ImperialHal has made it clear that he is against having Kings Canyon in competitive or the esports scene of Apex Legends. In a recent stream when he was updating Apex Legends, the pro player said, “I wanna be against having KC [Kings Canyon] in comp. If they, you know like I said, fix the fu**** loot and it’ll be fine. Technically, Valkyrie would also still be good on this map even with the nerfs. Because there are not like crazy ass mountains on this map. Maybe that’s why they nerfed her because they are planning on putting KC in comp.”
ImperialHal also joked about asking Respawn Entertainment to remove the map from ranked mode. He tweeted a screenshot of a direct message he sent to Apex Legends, joking that if it reaches 30K likes, the developers would have to remove the map. The message was not real and was only intended to poke fun at the devs.
When FURIA’s Jacob "HisWattson" McMillin commented on the post saying that “KC [Kings Canyon] slaps. They [Respawn] just made kills worth too much,” ImperialHal sarcastically replied with the following points.
“Yea KC slaps for sure
- 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
- Scout/30-30 is completely broken where you can just get 4/5 shotted instantly.”
Notably, ImperialHal is not the only pro who seems to be doubtful of Kings Canyon being added to the ranked rotation in Split 1 of Apex Legends Season 14. Cloud9’s Apex Legends pro player Zach “Zach” Mazer also echoed the same sentiments. He wrote, “Dear Apex, Please let KC die a nice death. I respect and admire your effort to keep KC around 3 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 <3”
Other pros who chimed in on the issue include Guild Esports Matej “MaTaFe” Fekonja and 100 Thieves’ Brendan "Onmuu" Pode.
Despite some of these pros calling out Apex Legends, other players seem to be enjoying the new Kings Canyon map and as usual, the community is on both sides of the fence. Notably, Season 14 was as usual off to a questionable start with players spawning with random abilities that belong to other legends in the game.
