Apex Legends: Respawn Entertainment Reveals Tournament Mode ahead of Esports Season

Respawn reveals the new tournament mode for official partners ahead of their esports season.

Respawn Entertainment has announced its latest patch for Apex Legends. The patch brings in the welcome new game modes, balance changes, and bug fixes. However, the much-anticipated tournament mode, which allows for private lobbies, is also a part of the package. The new feature is exclusively for Respawn partners, who will use the feature to better host tournaments and for private scrim sessions.

The tournament mode offers players and spectators private server access to create a better professional experience. From recording footage directly from a player perspective to better spectating tools. Not to mention it allows players ease of access to better practice conditions.

For Pro Play Only

However, the mode’s announcement has some sections of the player base angered by the feature’s exclusivity. It is understandable considering this is a largely requested game feature from the Apex Legends community.

Electronic Arts’ Shahin Kanafchian spoke on twitter about the new tournament mode and its purpose. He then clarifies in the same tweet the mode will be further rolled out as it develops.

As I've said before, we are not giving out public access to Tournament Mode at this time.

The purpose is to have a tool to run tournaments and (hopefully) pro scrims. We will be handling these internally for now, with an aim to scaling out over time.

— Shahin Kanafchian (@shahin) January 14, 2020

It seems like EA and Respawn have the full intention of making this feature public at some stage. But for now, the mode will exclusively be for its competitive scene.

This mode is a great addition to online competitive Apex Legends. Several of the Apex Legends 2020 Global Season events will be held online. This feature will make it much better to host and provide a great tournament experience.

Contextually speaking, it was only in December that GLL’s kill count tournament qualification was criticized by the competitive Apex Legends community. With the new feature, this qualification method is no longer necessary for tournament providers looking to get involved with EA.

This feature is clearly pointing in the right direction for the health of the upcoming esports season.

The first official online tournament for the Apex Legends 2020 Global Season begins January 25th.