One of the most fun Apex Legends modes for competitive tournaments is the community grown and run mod called R5 Reloaded. If you are unfamiliar with R5 Reloaded, it is a public Apex Legends mod that takes an old version of the game that is offline and allows players to adjust every game value like movement, legend abilities, and more. Because R5 Reloaded is such a beloved community mod, what EA has recently done has hit Apex Legends fans pretty hard.
Recently, EA has restricted streamers from hosting R5 Reloaded tournaments and prize pool events. In the community of Apex Legends, R5 Reloaded was some of the most fun viewers and players had with Apex Legends. The events never rivaled ALGS, but the homegrown fun and freedom that R5 Reloaded brought was something fans of Apex Legends absolutely loved.
This news is brought to us by @alphaINTEL on Twitter. When asked why EA is cracking down on R5 Reloaded, the response was that it is likely a licensing issue. While that may be true, we think a recent update to Apex Legends is to blame for the backlash from EA.
In our opinion, since Apex Legends recently got the private match feature, EA is forcing Apex Legend tournament hosters’ hands by restricting R5 Reloaded. In other words, since EA can’t make any money off of tournaments and prize pool events in R5 Reloaded, it is shutting that down so that community-run tournaments and events with sponsors have to play within the private lobbies of Apex Legends itself.
Apex Legends players already have a bad taste in their mouths from bugs that make them lose all of their progress and highly requested features that are still missing in the game. With this new update from EA, many Apex Legends players are stepping away from the game and moving on to greener pastures.
Though the core gameplay of Apex Legends is great, each individual player is experiencing their own “straw that broke the camel’s back” moment with things like this. It is only a matter of time before Apex Legends really loses its player base if EA and Respawn don’t listen to the community and make some changes.
Apex Legends is available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, IOS, Android, and PC.
