Apex Legends’ hated tap strafing is gone… but there’s a catch

After years of skirting around the subject, it appears the infamous Titanfall-based battle royale, Apex Legends, is finally removing tap strafing.
Developer Respawn announced that the contentious movement ability is due to be deleted from the game upon Season 20’s release date, but there's a huge sticking point: it’s only being removed on controller.

In a tweet yesterday, Respawn confirmed that they're further implementing changes in order to "better protect the game's competitive integrity". In a game where movement is as valuable as aim, recoil control, and positioning, it's almost surprising to hear that Apex Legends is removing movement tech that's been around for quite some time.

This comes off the back of a viral discussion around the use of configs, and how cheaters and less-than-savoury players spoil the game for everyone else by altering it to the point of hacking. So by preventing the chaining of config files, Respawn is putting a stop to workarounds that would give a "far greater range of movement than is usually possible in the game".

The majority of the fanbase is congratulating Respawn on their decision to finally remove a pretty broken bit of tech, and the developer doubled down on the fact it in no way approves of any third-party hardware or software that changes the game mechanics, or anything that gives an unfair advantage. Huge names in the Apex Legends space, such as the likes of ImperialHal and Nokokopuffs, have celebrated the decision in the tweet's comments section, and this approval will likely filter down to the rest of the masses.

And regardless of the ever-raging storm that is the 'controller versus mouse and keyboard' debate, this is a decision that Respawn deserves to be applauded for. The main point of contention between the two inputs is the skill ceiling, and by using configs, controller players on PC were able to gain far more of an advantage. There was never any denying that configs were just free cheats. So for Respawn to finally put their foot down, it's hopefully a step in the right direction concerning the near-constant flood of cheaters, particularly in PC lobbies.

Season 20 of Apex Legends is just around the corner, and we'll be keeping you up to date with all the new changes. In the meantime, check out our Apex Legends tier list to find out which characters are still meta.