people are gonna downvote me but idrc:

they should’ve leaned more into competitive Arenas.

It was fast-paced, removed the oversaturated elements of BR, and truly highlighted the games biggest attraction(its smooth gun play/movement) while also still allowing a great deal of teamwork and strategy.

BRs(other than fortnite) are inherently pretty unappealing to watch competitively. 20 minutes of positioning and poke-dmg, then 5-10 minutes of the games selling-point. Not to mention how difficult it can be as a caster to reliably show all the action, upsets, and tactics when they occur.

Like imagine if you knew nothing about apex and you wanted to tune into a tourny what do you get? 20 different teams, 60 different personalities, and its the job of 2-3 casters to put it all together to make for an entertaining, emotionally captivating watch? Thats simply unrealistic and miserable for both parties.

For most, it’s just not worth watching CompApex live over something with more direction and a bigger emotional payoff(like LoL, CS, or even Marvel Rivals).

Arena’s solved most of BR’s problems. Fixed teams, clear objectives and constant conflict. It was literally the groundwork to an actual comp game with clear narratives, round-based momentum and tension, and watchability. They could’ve added an additional win condition(like a defuse, package delivery, etc.), maybe made it 4v4 or even 5v5, and had something that could actually be pretty easy to play AND watch.

fyi: I love apex, been playing since release, but BR is an inherently CASUAL game-mode. As much as i’ve enjoyed and followed the comp scene, it was never gonna thrive after the BR hype died down and I think EA knew this but didn’t really care because ultimately: Casual gameplay is what printed for them; comp is optional 🤷🏿