Apex Legends Clip Shows Why Gold Knockdown Shields Should Be Nerfed in Ranked
Apex Legends season 13 saw a ton of changes to Ranked, dubbed by Respawn as Ranked Reloaded. One of those corrected the ability for a third party to steal kills under a rare, specific circumstance where the killing team gets knocked out first. The rationale behind this was pretty clear: kills are earned, not given, in Apex Legends.
Presumably, this applies to wins in the battle royale game as well, which is why Ranked was changed to better push teams and teamplay. One thing that wasn’t touched in Ranked that many Apex Legends have wanted before, however, is the Gold Knockdown shield. In casual or low-ranked play, these sometimes lead to surprise wins when the player gets up, hilarious moments in-between, and the occasional fisticuffs. At high-level play, it can become a serious problem.
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A recent Apex Legends clip highlights this perfectly. One player was in the top four of Diamond 4 gameplay in Ranked, but they had gone down. With their handy Knockdown shield and the final circle closing, they crawled their way to the middle and out of the way of the ring. As surviving players fought it out, they all eventually went down. This resulted in a Gold Knockdown Shield dogpile, but the surprising part is that the player who went down first, won. For many, this victory seems to be given and not earned.
One could argue about the player’s 2 kills and 200 damage all day, but at the end of it, it’s the Gold Knockdown Shield dogpile that really highlights the issue. Had not all of them had one, it would have been possible for the real last man standing to have finished the winner and claimed the victory. None of this is to say that the Gold Knockdown shield should be removed from Apex
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