LG Shiv abandons Bangalore brand from professional competition
Where the vast majority is popular Apex Legends players have named flashy characters with tons of motion options, like Wraith or Pathfinder, Luminosity Gaming’s ShivFPS stays true to Bangalore no matter how good or bad the character is.
However, now, Shiv seems to be dropping his signature legend, at least in competitions.
Shiv isn’t the only one trying to make Bangalore work in competitive gaming since the earliest days of the game. Notably, the character watched several matches from Team Liquid in year one Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS), with both Albralelie and Flanker taking turns in character at some point. However, Shiv is Bangalore’s oldest champion, often being the only Bangalore in any given lobby during the first year of ALGS and maintaining the selection in the first Pro League.
However, it looks like the race may eventually be over, and it’s not because Bangalore isn’t doing well. Simply because other characters are better at the highest levels of the game. And Shiv blame a particular character for not being able to maintain his Bangalore choice: Valkyrie.
Shiv’s competitive team, soloQgoats, experimented with different competitors around Bangalore. Early in the Pro League, the team ran a distinct mix of Valkyrie, Caustic and Bangalore, while also trying to match legends like Gibraltar and Wraith. But the so-called Valkyrie meta is too strong to make Bangalore a reality anymore, according to Shiv. And it’s hard to argue with him based on their results: soloQgoats struggled very strongly in the Pro League, finishing 33 out of 40 in the first season and forced to battle for relegation at the Challenger Track for the Season two.
Part of Shiv’s conundrum is due to Gibraltar’s importance to the Valkyrie composition. Teams using Valkyrie’s Skyward Dive ult to perform impossible turns rely heavily on Gibraltar’s Dome Shield in situations where there’s no hope of a safe landing. In general, Gibby’s bubble increases the margin of error in any component, which explains why he has the highest pick rates in both North America and Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA) , according to data from Top statistics page SinghLabs.
And if the two picks in the composition of a team have to be taken by Valkyrie and Gibraltar, that leaves little room for a character like Bangalore. Bangalore’s ability doesn’t add much to what other legends can’t do better: Gibraltar’s ultimate is more immediate and harder to avoid than Bangalore’s. Her strategy is great for obscuring enemy vision while spinning but not nearly as impactful as Gibraltar’s bubble. A character like Caustic also has a vision-obscuring ability that does double the damage, the ability to deny area in a way that smoking Bangalore simply doesn’t. Compared to other legends like Caustic, Wraith or Ash, Bangalore’s ability in a Valkyrie-focused lineup looks less and less useful.
It’s not that Bangalore can’t do anything. Those are other characters who can do more than her.
The end of this era still leaves ALGS fans with unforgettable memories, including soloQgoats’ incredible performance in the year one EMEA championship, where the team took third place. And surely Shiv will not give up his favorite character. He has assured his fans of the same, saying that he will still play Bangalore regularly in ranked play and possibly a Pro League meme. But for the most part, Pro League Bangalore is dead. Long live the Pro League Bangalore.
While not qualifying for the first knockout this time around, soloQgoats will return for Season Two when the competition resumes on February 26. As for the teams that made it to the knockouts this time around. Next, you can make them fight for the $250,000 prize. ended on January 22, when EMEA’s top 20 teams beat it and again on January 23 with North American teams trying to claim the top spot of the region.
https://dotesports.com/apex-legends/news/lg-shiv-retires-trademark-bangalore-from-pro-play LG Shiv abandons Bangalore brand from professional competition
