Michael ‘Shroud’ Grzesiek has weighed in on the debate around whether or not “bunny-hopping” should remain in Apex Legends.
Bunny-hopping is a technique that’s by no means unique to Apex Legends, cropping up in a variety of games for a variety of purposes. Bunny-hopping describes any technique which is carried out by continuously jumping, launching off immediately upon hitting the ground for a series of “bunny-hops”.
In Apex, bunny-hopping is used to move significantly faster while healing. Though you can still move when replenishing your health or shields, typically you’re slowed to a crawl while doing so. By utilizing bunny-hopping, however, it’s possible to keep up your momentum so you barely lose any speed.
Unfortunately for fans of the technique, Respawn Entertainment have stated they consider it a bug and as such will be “fixing” it and removing it from the game.
Not all players are happy about this news, however, with many arguing that it’s an element that increases the skill ceiling, helping to differentiate between good players, who might simply have good aim, and those who have taken the time to master the game’s intricacies.
Among critics of the potential move is Shroud, who is arguably the face of the game as the most popular broadcaster of Apex Legends gameplay on Twitch. Shroud went as far as to say that he doesn’t know if he can play the game if the technique is removed.
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“It’s such a good fucking feature, I’m praying the devs don’t [remove it],” he said.
Shroud isn’t the first notable player to have criticized Respawn’s decision to “fix” bunny-hopping, with former Overwatch pro and current Apex solo kill world record-holder Lucas ‘Mendo’ Håkansson among the most vocal dissenters.
For heal bhopping, @Respawn please don't remove itImplement it to the game and officially support it, and nerf it to a point where you no longer think it's broken. It's the best way
— nocturnal mendo (@Mendo) March 20, 2019
Respawn haven’t yet actually implemented any changes to the way bunny-hopping works, so it remains possible that they could have a change of heart and decide to leave the technique in as a feature, rather than patching it out as a bug.