The CEO of Apex Legends, Phillip ‘ImperialHal’ Dosen, has had enough with Twitch Rivals. With the latest rendition of the tournament done, Hal is refusing to play in any more unless Twitch consider rule changes to make the event more balanced.
Twitch Rivals hosts an Apex Legends showdown every few months, inviting top content creators and pros along for a bit of fun — although there’s also some serious cash on the line.
ImperialHal has become a master of these tournaments, usually dominating the lobbies with his various squads. However, he failed to do that during the fourth Showdown on July 26, falling to ninth with HusKerrs and Xednim.
The CEO of Apex Legends is fed up with the events which have morphed over time, stating on Twitter he will “not [be] playing in Twitch Rivals until rules are changed.”
Don’t let the salt get in the way of the argument though. While Hal used to dominate the early Twitch Rivals events, he hasn’t found too much success recently as rules change towards making the lobbies less top-heavy. Teams have ranked restrictions now, as well as a set number of pros to not make things unbalanced.
This still leads to some super teams like Eric ‘Snip3down’ Wrona joining forces with former TSM teammate Jordan ‘Reps’ Wolfe during the latest event. But there’s still a huge difference between squads who are from a more general Twitch background and those invested in the Apex scene.
Not playing in @TwitchRivals Apex til rules are changed/removed
— ImperialHal (@ImperialHal) July 27, 2022
Hal wants the restrictions to be loosened or lifted entirely.
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“Sh*t is a complete waste of time when it isn’t fair teams,” he continued. “I’ve been on both ends and it’s not fun trust.
“No rules is the best way to go about it — it’s just important which captains are picked because most likely it will be all pro teams. The biggest issue with no rules is the same players playing nonstop since people will be picking pros to win the entire time.”
He isn’t oblivious to the flaws in his suggestions, but Hal wants the event to be as competitive and fun as possible — and the current balance just isn’t hitting the mark in his eyes.
Twitch are aware of the frustrations too. Co-manger of Twitch Rivals ‘CloudFuel’ mentioned on Twitter “maybe the solution is to go back to no restrictions.
“We’ve done that for Warzone, Fortnite, and other BRs and it worked for them.”
Whether the platform will act on these suggestions remains to be seen, but losing Hal from Twitch Rivals will be big for the event’s viewership. The TSM star’s stream for the recent event peaked at more than 29,000 viewers, compared to just 23,000 on the main broadcast.
