The first big non-Battle Royale mode created for Apex Legends was Control, which premiered in Season 12 in February 2022. This mode introduced a similar take on Call of Duty’s Domination mode and saw two nine-player sides, each comprised of three squads.
It was a big team LTM (limited time mode) that used sections of maps in exciting ways and gave a break to players wanting something different.
While it was something fun, it wasn’t exactly viable for completing a season’s challenges to progress the battle pass. It was then changed in Season 14 when alternative Non-Battle Royale challenges were introduced. These gave the same rewards but worked with LTMs. They worked perfectly in other Battle Royale LTMs, but the true problem didn’t arise until Control made several appearances. It was quickly apparent that assists didn’t completely work.
If someone not in your squad killed the opponent you had already damaged, you got nothing for it. I wrote about this issue back in February 2023 when Season 16 introduced the Mixtape playlist that added Control permanently, as well as brought in Team Deathmatch. These modes were great for working on challenges, but there was the ever-present annoyance of not progressing certain challenges because the wrong person on your team helped you.
While it wasn’t a speedy fix, the issue has finally been corrected for Season 19. The patch notes clearly state, “Assists are now awarded for Assisted Kills by ALL Teammates in modes where multiple squads are teamed together.” After seasons of having this issue hanging over every Control and TDM game, it’s nice that it’s finally been corrected.
Though this is a positive, and I cannot deny that, it’s still indicative of a larger issue. It feels like too many things fall through the cracks regarding Apex Legend fixes. Mixtape has been a thing for going on four seasons now, and this issue has only now been corrected. It’s not something small that only affected a handful of players, either. This issue certainly impacted every player in Mixtape, and it still took the better part of a year to correct.
This was further evidenced last season with a problem that plagued the Harbingers event that wasn’t fixed until just about the last second of the event. It’s tough sinking time into a game and coming across issues you can’t always expect to be fixed in a reasonable amount of time. I know it’s not always easy to keep on top of things in a game like this with many moving parts, but this problem stayed entirely constant and directly detracted from the experience.
I’m sure this season will have some new issue, as that’s just kind of how Apex Legends seasons go, but at least I know one issue that I will be comforted to have fixed.
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