The never-ending debate about the imbalance between controller and keyboard & mouse players continues to rage on in Apex, sparked once again by HisWattson claiming aim assist is unfair, and not fit for a competitive game.
There has been a renewed focus on the advantages of controller players, partly sparked by pro player Mac ‘Albralelie’ Beckwith temporarily switching to controller, and the prevalence of controller players at ALGS tournaments.
While there are obvious drawbacks to the limited buttons and aiming with a toggle rather than a mouse, it’s believed that the strength of aim assist is enough to make up for this – something Jacob ‘HisWattson‘ McMillin believes too.
HisWattson claims aim assist is “unfair” in Apex
Amid the debate, HisWattson posted a lengthy Twitter thread to give his view. As one of the best players in the world, his take has made an instant impact.
“I’m gonna keep it a buck. From a competitive standpoint, aim assist is unfair and unfun to play against,” he said. “How is it fair that it takes me ~200 ms to react to enemy movement but my opponent has a computer that reacts for them in 0ms.”
He continued, arguing that if Apex wants to be truly competitive, controller should be banned from competitive play.
“Controller has a lower skill ceiling, lower skill expression, and is so bad for aiming they had to make it do 40% of tracking for you just so it would be useable. I don’t care if people play on controller but if you think that controller doesn’t make the game significantly less competitive then Idk what to tell you.”
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I think MnK is better than controller for competitive apex anyways but the fact that it makes the game less competitive is undeniable imo. And you can't blame pro players for complaining about something that lowers the skill gap of their game.
— FURIA HisWattson (@HisWattson) May 24, 2023
Despite this, he did clarify that he still believes mouse & keyboard is the superior input overall. But, regardless, argues that controller players lower the skill gap of the game.
Apex caster Jon ‘Falloutt’ Kefaloukos agreed that controller was not the most competitive option, but that Respawn is prioritizing inclusivity over competitiveness: “Apex wants to make their game as inclusive as possible, while still offering a fun competitive experience. Thus we ended up here.”
While many players agreed with HisWattson’s view, there was unsurprisingly a lot of disagreement too. Some argued that it was “gate-keeping” and a “superiority complex” from keyboard & mouse players.
Respawn has mentioned the issue of aim assist infrequently, with the last significant comment on it from developers back in 2021. At the time, they said they would “evaluate whether or not aim assist is ‘too good’.”
Since then, however, there have been no significant updates to aim assist values, and so, the debate continues.