Since the game’s release, YouTube has seen a lot of interest in Apex Legends content. Recently, the trend of “Rookie to Predator” streams has emerged as one of the genre’s defining themes. ItzTimmy is probably the most well-known for doing so because of a 54-hour stream that made headlines last year, but many others have accomplished the feat or attempted to do so.
One Apex streamer, however, has voiced concerns about this kind of content and how producers will create new “smurf” accounts to begin at the lowest rank.
In a series of tweets published last night, Laurice “GuhRL” Habibi, a Twitch streamer and former Global Series caster for Apex Legends criticized other creators for essentially destroying the experience of players attempting to play the game at their own level, her main argument against the practice is straightforward but difficult for some to understand: that a top-level player needs to make a fake account in order to start at the bottom in order to advance from the lowest rank to the highest rank.
As a result, they have an impact on players who are merely trying to enjoy themselves during the brief time they have to play, despite the fact that most streamers do not have a problem with playtime.
Many streamers and content producers have frequently overlooked the final point in the discussion. The majority of people fit in a few games between work, school, and family obligations, whereas the typical Twitch wants to be star may have 8–10 hours per day to play.
In addition to depriving them of a fair experience, playing against an ItzTimmy-level opponent in lower ranks is disrespectful to the playerbase that supports creators and ruins their gameplay.
She also emphasized that by putting herself in the position of those she might encounter in the lower ranks, she is not attempting to minimize the difficulty of rising from the lowest rank to the top.
Not everyone who responded agreed; former TSM coach Martin “gdolphn” Skrydstrup said he didn’t like playing against ranked opponents and would keep doing whatever he found enjoyable. While some fans responded that smurfing was the reason they had stopped playing the game altogether, other creators blamed matchmaking problems or a lack of content in the game for doing these challenges.
GuhRL’s argument, regrettably, is somewhat undermined by the fact that her pinned tweet, which was posted on a smurf account, celebrated her own rise from Bronze to Masters. Respawn promised to crack down on smurfing in Season 9, but the frequency with which prominent creators post and produce content using smurf accounts demonstrates that no meaningful measures have yet been taken.
