Stormpoint map makes its competitive debut in NRG Sweetdreams’ Invitational, but are we convinced?

NRG apex player Sweetdreams hosted his first ever Apex invitational, in collaboration with popular aim trainer Aimlab. The event came with a $10,000 prize pool, split between 5 Apex Legends games and an Aimlab aim challenge.

This tournament was the first to be set exclusively on the new map, Stormpoint. Featuring big name captains such as Rogue, Hakis and Reptar this was a very competitive lobby that produced some high quality games.

While host Sweetdreams narrowly missed out on second place, losing a tiebreaker his girlfriend BabyNikki had more success. Captain Nikki drafted SSG Frex and ESA Skittlecakes and they proved to be the most consistent team in the whole lobby, adapting to the new map Storm Point with ease.

Couple Sweetdreams and Nikki did encounter each other multiple times throughout the 5 games of the tournament and the competitive duo took it in good humour when Sweetdreams styled on Nikki, surprising her in game 3. The couple then engaged in some lighthearted post match analysis.

Was Sweet upset that he didn't win his first tournament and it was instead won by his girlfriend? Of course not, the Apex couple spent the evening reviewing Nikki's games. Who better to get advice from than a Top 3 Apex IGL in North America!

Since the removal of Kings Canyon, Apex competitive has been almost exclusively set on Worlds Edge. Despite some viewers and players saying that this has made Apex Competitive boring to play, neither Olympus (which was tried in the BLAST Tournament) or Kings Canyon is suitable for high level Apex.

However, the Sweetdreams Invitational gave us a snapshot of the potential that Apex's latest map, Storm Point, has to finally break into the competitive scene. The gameplay was well placed, with action throughout the match and not all exclusively at the very end like Worlds Edge.

However, it was equally not a third party fiesta, which is a major complaint about Kings Canyon. Looting on Storm Point is also a much better experience for the viewer.

While it can be pretty boring to watch your favourite Apex pro's loot on Worlds Edge, Kings Canyon and Olympus, the addition of Spiders and Prowlers to Storm Point adds an extra dimension to the early game and makes this initial phase much more watchable.

However, the Sweetdreams invitational was also a first look at some of the current issues that Storm Point has that could prevent it being added into the competitive scene.

In Apex competitive, drop spots are crucial to a team's success. Professional players battle it out in scrims to secure their preferred location and certain spots (such as Frag East in Worlds Edge) are highly prized and provide huge advantages to the "owners".

In Storm Point, certain drop ship paths make some drop spots inaccessible without using Gravity Cannons or Tridents. This is less than ideal for a professional team, where every second spent looting matters.

This delay caused NRG Rogue's team to only reach their drop spot with 1 minute 50 seconds left until the zone started looting. Fast rotating teams might be on the move by the 1 minute 40 second mark. This puts certain drop spots at a disadvantage in Competitive.

The tournaments host, Sweetdreams, also came to the conclusion that success on this map depends on having a Valkyrie. This is due to the maps huge size. A map that forces a certain type of character tends to not be healthy for the competitive scene.

However, Respawn are already listening to feedback and are open to making changes to polish Storm Point.

Overall, the Sweetdreams Invitational tournament seemed to be a success, with the players enjoying the games on a new map. This overall led to a high quality viewing experience.

In particular, host Sweetdreams said he really enjoyed the balance between professional players and content creators. This leads to mixed teams that we would not see in ALGS, but still provides enjoyable viewing with the best Apex players.

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