Season 5 has been in full swing for a few weeks now, and after the EA Play event, Respawn added in the Lost Treasures event. This time around, we're sitting down with ALGS coach Alistair, aka EMEF, to get a different perspective on the scene.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Alistair: Hi, my name is Alistair or my handle EMEF. I’m a British ALGS coach who recently coached teams like Clique, the all too short-lived Top 8 EU team with the best name “Power Puff Bruvs” and most recently the European OT4 champions Myth. Currently I’m officially LFT, but I’m in the process of building 2 rosters (1 North American, 1 European), as well as working with another recently-formed European team. On top of this, I obviously have the new meta to consider and analyse. If I had to describe myself, I’d say I’m a very busy boy.


How did you get involved in the coaching scene?

Alistair: I had been playing competitively on console for about 5ish years in various FPS titles and filled a more game-sense heavy, mechanically-lax style for a while, even founding teams and scouting talent at points as a player. Essentially filling a pseudo-coaching role on top of being a player. I was born with a disability in my hands affecting dexterity and the usage of certain areas on each hand that I found very minor and rarely interacted with my daily life, least of all my competitive endeavours (thanks aim assist). However, when I made the natural progression to PC & MnK, I found that my progression was excruciatingly slow. More specifically, my mouse grip has no way to be optimal so I essentially cannot wrist aim, and the index finger/middle finger/ring finger dexterity required to use a keyboard properly was extremely difficult at the start, though I have since found workarounds for the latter.

The shock to my expectations on top of my extremely competitive mentality lead me to a very difficult place mentally as I could not feel any kind of improvement for months on months, no matter my regime. The day before Apex was revealed, the leaks of a Titanfall battle royale were circulating, and I knew I had to compete in it, no matter what. While the watered down mechanics were a disappointment for someone whose favourite FPS is still Titanfall 1, I eventually learned to love it for being the smoothest relevant game on the market, and it reaffirmed my competitive drive. I didn’t end up abandoning my dreams of playing competitively, but I knew I had to take a different route to get there, via primarily coaching while I attempt to improve my mechanics on the side at a decelerated rate. As for the future, we’ll see.

What’s it like being on the coaching side instead of competing as a player? Do you have any tips for aspiring coaches out there?

Alistair: Coaching in Apex is tricky, as mid-game communication is forbidden. I assume this is part of the reason that coaching as a profession has not taken off in the game (that and the horrendous prizing/salary offers), despite its obvious and proven effectiveness in historical results. Coaching just adds extra competitiveness to every aspect of your team, be it through specific VOD reviewal, additional efficiency in looting/contesting/rotation pathing, dedicated meta analysis to reach solutions to role or matchup problems, there is no team that is made worse by a coach.

The fact that all of your impact on the roster has no immediate results is tricky and, for inexperienced coaches, it can often feel like a futile endeavour to be a coach. However my advice to newer coaches is that, in a game so dependent on 3 people being tuned into every cause and effect of a macro play, or responsive to a mid-fight target call, you will always have a use to any given roster. As long as you have the experience to understand the game at a competitive level, the objective oversight that you as a coach bring is already something that is unattainable for your players. Avoid giving firm input on issues you’re uncertain of, know your role, and make sure your players know your role, and you can’t really go wrong.


What’s been a special memory to you during your coaching career?

Alistair: The most special memory for me was a string of moments from Online Tournament 3. This was the first time a team of mine had qualified for a finals, and I felt that we were better than we had ever been as a team, that team being the aforementioned Power Puff Bruvs of Oxbow, Brynn & Daniomega. I watch us get off to a fairly poor start from Dani’s view of the game from a private Twitch stream, and tune in at the end of game 2 to see the damage on the scoreboard (before I’d learned that Kano, who almost single handedly runs the Apex Liquipedia was quicker than any tournament hosts). At that point I realised that Goldenboy had been casting the event that my team was playing in, and all my analytical faculties shut down going into the start of game 3.

I had a minor “I made it” moment after he complemented our (admittedly fantastic) team name, and was kinda struck by the situation for a minute. I’ve definitely not lost any competitive hunger over it, as I still have SO MUCH to prove, and I’d already been awestruck by the talent I was working so closely with in Onset, Bravo, and Wonderboy previously, especially as an avid fan of the HCS. But to see probably the best esports talent in the industry, caster of literally anything and everything, global icon, sharing the same stage as my boys made me unspeakably proud.

While I’m having my fanboy moment, I snap back to our PoV as I watch Dani hit consecutive Wingman headshots on a team rotating alongside us, almost perfectly synchronised with a favourable zone pull and I know that this game wouldn’t be like the last two. We get the worst spot in the 5-team zone, but it doesn’t matter at all, because I’m in the Discord and I can hear that it’s safe and gives them time to think. With IGL-heavy teams there comes a rare and special point where your IGL begins to speak rhythmically, almost inviting affirmative responses from their teammates in the limited downtime between bursts of speech. And both Brynn and Dani had begun to perfectly fill these spaces between Ox’s calls, as they systematically executed almost every single team with a slow upgrade of positioning after each wipe, finalising in a victory and highest kill game of the finals. The image of Brynn not having time to loot between wipes other than instant armour swapping after each kill, leaving him with a 1-2x on his unstocked Flatline for the final kill will stay with me for a long time.

During the EA Play event, Respawn showed off some interesting additions such as a moving respawn beacon and a Lifeline buff allowing her to res two teammates at a time. What are your thoughts on these additions?

Alistair: The Lifeline buff I feel like has been very much underexplored competitively. I’ll be the first to admit that I thought that the removal of her fastheal, no matter what she got in return, would be the death of the character. However, with the massive spike in hyper-aggressive compositions like TSM’s Wraith/Revenant/Crypto and Alliance’s Wraith/Revenant/Gibraltar, I believe that the ability to defensively and reactively keep up with Death Totem’s pseudo-healing and pseudo-revival capabilities with actual healing and reviving capabilities during the downtime between Totem recalls could make her extremely viable going into the new meta, especially with literally all previous defensive utility characters such as Wattson, Gibraltar, and Caustic being nerfed. Furthermore, allowing her to play around her shields with high burst damage weapons like the Mastiff can even allow for advantageous swings of fight momentum upon teammates being downed. One thing is for certain, and that is that NOBODY should get a Gold Backpack over Lifeline.

As for the Mobile Respawn Beacon, it is currently banned after it’s accidental inclusion in base-game for tournament/scrim lobbies, so there’s no hard evidence or testing done on it, this is purely speculative. However, I fail to see it having much, if any, use in competitive play. Reviving a teammate after zone 3 closes was essentially impossible beforehand, as all 15~ teams in the lobby will be lining up for their free kill point as the revived player leaps from the dropship, and reviving in early-game allows for enough rotation wiggle-room to get a res at a standard beacon location.

The lack of protection for a player dropping is what makes it a risky play in competition, the location is rarely relevant. I honestly think that the most utility a team will get out of the Mobile Respawn Beacon will be the small amount of deployable cover it gives, but the truth is that I have not had the time to test that properly yet between all the other changes going on in the meta right now. I do not see it being impactful, especially in the tight amount of inventory space players already have to cram their ammo, meds, grenades, and now necessary Ultimate Accelerants into already.


Along with the new additions, the biggest one seems to be cross play which is coming in the Fall. Do you think cross play will add new life to Apex Legends?

Alistair: I do not see there being any impact to the game as an esport, as players joining now will have a significant disadvantage in terms of ALGS points for event qualification, but for the game as an overall experience, and most importantly as a cultural activity, crossplay will do wonders. You need only look at games like Warzone, Fortnite, and Minecraft and how the inclusion of multi-platform play boosted their numbers and their status within popular culture, I honestly think the game will receive a second boom, even more so than the release of Season 5, and I couldn’t be more excited. I just hope that Respawn and EA can find a way to introduce the enormous and passionate casual community into the currently dwindling esports viewership that they have previously failed to do. If in-game integration of the esports scene and a steady conversion of casual fans into competitive fans can occur, especially after the massive boost that crossplay will bring, then I genuinely believe Apex Legends can be one of the biggest and best esports in the world.

A lot of ire seems to be pointed at Caustic and the Havoc (although it got nerfed). Why do you think both of those are such big issues?

Alistair: Caustic has been a character that I would say is dangerously designed. His kit has so much depth in its one role, but no width and cannot be applied in many situations. But the fact that he is so overbearing in the few situations he excels in makes him extremely frustrating, especially without any form of hard-counter like the rest of the damage dealing abilities in the game have. Wattson Pylons beat all forms of offensive abilities in the game, Rolling Thunder, Defensive Bombardment, even Caustic’s ultimate, but the fact that in close-ranged engagements, where gunplay should matter most, Caustic’s barrels are able to completely neuter any way of fighting back, is extremely unhealthy for the game in my, and most people’s opinions.

The previous timing window on countering an inactive barrel (let’s not forget that active barrels are ENTIRELY uncounterable), was far too small, both in hitbox and timing, to the point where even professional players were unable to meet the precision criteria with any consistency, something which should NEVER happen. I think giving him some more counterplay with this new nerf has been healthy for him as a character, but I would honestly still like to see a full rework of his kit in the future akin to the Lifeline rework.

Havoc as a weapon is something completely different to Caustic but just as frustrating. Weapons in Apex Legends have some semblance of a hypothetical statistical triangle, with each point representing 3 aspects of it. 1 would be aiming consistency, being recoil severity, recoil randomness, iron sights, etc. 1 would be damage, factoring in rate of fire, damage per shot, and how easy it is to do burst damage in short periods of time. And the final one would be weapon usability, factoring in things that affect your playstyle, like magazine size, movement speed, effective range, and weapon charge-up for weapons where it’s relevant like the Havoc. Meta weapons would fit into this stat triangle as isosceles, with 2 points high, but some drawback in the final area. For example, the R99 has nice, predictable recoil, good DPS, but the short magazine size and low per-shot damage force you into an aggressive and risky playstyle. Wingman has good damage per shot and is usable at most ranges, but is extremely punishing when missing shots. The Havoc became an objectively good weapon in that it filled all 3 of the aspects a weapon would need to be effective.

At close-range, the charge time was irrelevant as the aggressor, as a simple slide + jump into any fight would mean that the charge would end the second a target appears on screen, ultimately mitigating it and allowing its top 3 DPS, forgiving magazine size, and tight hip fire spread to allow it to beat weapons even specifically made for close-quarters such as the R99 and Mastiff. At longer ranges, its classification as an Energy Weapon allows it to have reduced bullet drop and faster projectile speed, which when combined with its ability to fit a 2x, 3x, or even 2-4x scope meant that the high, albeit predictable, recoil was no issue, and long-range kills were commonplace. All in all, the weapon did too many things too well, and deserved the nerf. From what I can tell, it’s still a potent pick, but the nerf was definitely felt, unlike the previous attempt at a fix for its dominance. I would still like to see a nerf similar to the G7s, making it unable to fit the same scopes as the R301/Flatline classification of weapons, and only allowing it to fit up to a 2x like the R99 to properly cement its role and effective usage.


Another point of contention was knockdown shields in competition, especially the gold knockdown shield. Do you think there’s a way that they can be improved or was removing them the only logical solution?

Alistair: The Gold Knockdown shield absolutely had to go. It was entirely uncompetitive to have an RNG item allow for such an uninteractive and ultimately in most cases, anti-rewarding experience for killing a team. The self-resurrection was never an issue, but the effect that the knocked player had on the placement scoring in late-game was devastating and ultimately punished teams for winning fights in some cases. It got so bad that eventually an unwritten rule in professional games was that when in a 3v1v1 situation for top 3, the full team would always kill the undeserving player bleeding out with the Golden Knockdown Shield before they went to hunt for the surviving player that was ratting in the end zone.

We had communication from Respawn in a pro Discord a few months ago about attempting to remove Gold Knockdowns from competitive, but after silence for some time, I assumed that altering the loot pool would not be technically possible, and added Gold Knockdowns to a list of things I wanted fixing in competitive Apex in a video I never got around to making and came up with what I would consider a solution, found below. I would much rather that Respawn do what they have done, and remove it from the loot pool, but I liked my suggestion in that it was a compound fix for a previously weak Lifeline, a problematic competitive mechanic, and retained the flavour/casual appeal of the self-resurrection:

“Gold Knockdown - Gold perk changed to faster revive. When the person is downed with gold knockdown and their teammates go to res them, there is an animation where the gold shield in front of them warps to fit their body, and their teammate just pulls them up by the wrist like usual, without the syringe animation. This does use up the gold aspect of the shield, like before, turning it into a purple.

Lifeline - Ultimate must now be called down 50m away from the Lifeline player. Supply Drop now contains a 4th side to it, with a guaranteed spawn of an Evo Knockdown Shield. Once a holder secures a knock & kill, it evolves into a Red Knockdown shield. Red Knockdown shields allow the wielder to self-revive, whose function behaves exactly the same as the old Gold Knockdown shield, with its shield health reduced to 500. Evo Knockdown Shields are not available as floor loot, and only available from Lifeline packages or the death box of someone who was holding one.”

Anything you’d like to conclude this interview with?

Alistair: Apologies for the long one, I rarely get opportunities where I can be overly passionate about the game I love while being unnecessarily verbose about it. Just wanted to reiterate that I’m still looking for teams and opportunities in the Apex scene, and have even considered some broadcasting/directing work. My DMs are open to all queries and inquiries (@TheEMEF). Nothing really to plug, but Myth are a highly underrepresented team for some reason, and I hope that people can cheer for them and give them the respect they deserve as a genuine competitive threat for SCOT2 and beyond. That’s all. Finally, thank you so much for the opportunity and privilege of this interview. I hope at least one person found my waffling insightful in some way.<3

Much appreciation to Alistair for his insight on the scene and for taking the time for put his all into this interview. Be sure to check him out and support him in journey!