Pro players and the casual community are often at odds in Apex Legends. It’s difficult for Respawn to make any change in the game without one group claiming the devs are catering to the other. But season 21’s Broken Moon update looks like it’s struck a magical balance.
The Broken Moon of season 21 is worlds apart from how the map initially launched back in season 15. The middle of the map has been completely altered to remove the deathtrap that was Promenade, replaced by the massive Quarantine Zone POI and filled with several new rotations into the central POI. There are also fewer zip rails going toward the center of the map, more mini-POIs and structures in rotational paths for players to loot and find cover, more loot overall, new and moved full-sized POIs, and even a new skybox and decorative terrain. And, perhaps most importantly, players of almost all levels think the new Broken Moon is a big upgrade.
On the Apex subreddit, many players are praising the new Broken Moon, noting how the updates make it feel like “a brand new map” and “fixes all the griefs”—a not insignificant number of players are also simply happy to see the end of Promenade. The only major issue many players seem to have is how easy it is to get lost with all the new indoor passageways around Quarantine Zone, which feature high elevation changes and can be difficult to figure out at first.
Importantly, the map update is also a hit with some of the biggest pro players in the scene, including ImperialHal. “Broken Moon update is amazing,” the TSM player said, and several other pros agree. Oxygen Esports’ Vein even went as far as suggesting the ALGS map pool should swap out World’s Edge for the new Broken Moon.
Pro Apex has made its home on World’s Edge for years now, and the ALGS has kept the map in its rotation basically since its introduction to the game. But even with map updates significantly changing World’s Edge over the years, many pros and viewers feel the map has grown a bit stale. The possibility of a new competitive map could go a long way toward keeping the ALGS feeling fresh and exciting.
But even if Broken Moon doesn’t become a true competitive map in pro play, the fact that Respawn has managed to change the map from a polarizing one that many of the game’s biggest streamers publicly loathed playing on into a map they look forward to is an unmitigated win.
Apex season 21 is only a few days old, but there’s plenty of optimism around the community that its successful launch has solidified an upward trajectory for the game.
