Apex Legends' "new long-term progression system" lets you master guns to get free legendary skins

gamesradar.com:

As part of the chunky seasonal update coming in Apex Legends: Arsenal, the battle royale shooter is adding a new system called Weapon Mastery which will reward your gunplay and patience with rare cosmetics, and that includes legendary weapon skins. 

"Weapon Mastery is our first new long-term progression system outside of account level!" a blog post (opens in new tab) on the EA site reads. "As we look to make Apex Legends more approachable for new players, this system incentivizes them to learn about the strengths and character of all our weapons. The goal here was to deepen player engagement across the board regardless of who you main or which mode you prefer." 

Weapon Mastery will level the playing field by starting all players at level one for all weapons. You can earn experience by "having a weapon in hand, dealing damage, securing kills, and fighting with style" in any mode, and the XP and levels you earn will be permanent. 

Every 20 levels, you'll receive a specific "trial" with unique rewards. For reference, here are the two trials confirmed for the Flatline AR:

The image from EA also reveals a trial for the Mozambique which requires hipfire downs, and one for the Charge Rifle killing at least three enemies (presumably in one match, though the rest of the description is obscured) with the Lv. 3 Extended Light Mag attached. These appear to be the final trials, so this gives us some idea of how difficult they'll be. 

If you get a weapon to level 100 and clear all five trials, you can say you've officially "mastered" it. In the process, you'll get "weapon-specific badges, lifetime performance trackers, Legendary weapon mastery banner frames, and a guaranteed Legendary skin for each weapon," which could be pretty