Apex Legends' twelfth season has reached its midway point, which means it's time for a new ranked split. This time players are going back to the game's original map: King's Canyon. King's Canyon has seen many changes over three years, yet it remains one of the preferred maps for public matches. Players are almost always guaranteed a fight, as points of interest (POIs) are relatively closer to each other. The majority of these locations are also small, making loot easier to find. The layout of the map also favors close-quarters combat over other methods of engagement.
While this contributes to why Apex Legends players love King's Canyon in public matches (pubs), it makes the map a poor location for ranked play. Ranked play in Apex Legends usually requires smarter and make more tactical decisions on the fly. From drop points at the beginning of the match to minute-to-minute resource management, players looking to climb the ranked ladder have to make some big adjustments if they want to come out on top in King's Canyon.
Many King's Canyon Points of Interest are Outdated
Seeing as this was Apex Legends' first map, it only makes sense that some POIs in King's Canyon haven't aged as well as Olympus and other maps. The Pit, Swamps, and Bunker haven't seen changes since the game released, and their level design reflects this. Bunker, for instance, is a straight corridor with a few rooms on either side. There are only two exits to Bunker: one on the east and west. This makes it a nightmare for squads to pass through, especially if there is an enemy Caustic nearby. When compared to something like Lava Siphon, a similar POI found on World's Edge, Bunker's level design is too straightforward and bottlenecks players into cramped spaces.
New Parts of King's Canyon Are Out of the Way
That isn't to say all of King's Canyon's locations are lacking in design. Apex Legends currently uses a version of the map introduced in Season 8. That update added a vertical POI called Crash Site to make up for the fan-favorite Skull Town being sunk in Season 5. Later in Season 8, Caustic Treatment replaced Water Treatment. These two POIs, while fun and varied, are far away from their neighboring POIs.
This distance from the rest of civilization can result in a lot of dead air between fights, making it less appealing for players to drop there. Ranking up in Apex Legends requires a mix of kills and final squad placements, so players should be looking for fights as much as overall wins. It could be argued that squads should go for these distant POIs to loot and upgrade their gear, but doing so could rob them of third-party kills.
Third Parties Rule in King's Canyon
King's Canyon ranked play suffers from the overabundance of third-party fights. The trouble starts on drop, where players are tasked to choose where they land. Since King's Canyon has a low number of POIs, some squads will inevitably land in the same location. This results in players having to fight one another without proper preparation, as loot will be contested. These high-risk fights can result in the loss of ranked points, since there are still multiple squads in the match.
If players emerge victorious from initial gunfights, they have a short time to recover and resupply before inevitable third parties start showing up. Since most of King's Canyon's POIs are close to each other, it is easy for one or more squads to join an ongoing fight. At best, players who fall victim to a third party can't reset and loot properly, as they'll be forced into a fight immediately. At worst, the squad gets eliminated, and players lose their chance of ranking up.
Losing to a third party is one of the worst feelings when playing ranked in Apex Legends. That's the nature of a battle royale game, but it just so happens that these situations tend to happen more often on King's Canyon. If Respawn Entertainment could do anything for King's Canyon, it would be to increase the map size and evenly space out its POIs. Other maps are a testament to good design, so it's definitely within Respawn's abilities to balance the original map for ranked play while maintaining its unique qualities.
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