My Review of Season 4 and Thoughts on the Future of THE FINALS

[@known4232]

Honestly I love the dynamic that comes with people being able to see rank/seed. Making dynamic decisions about who you’re fighting is what the finals is all about. Some of my favorite games are from when people from multiple teams in high elo will recognize each other and intentionally target one another. It pushes us and I gets me to play and think differently. It’s makes me start to think creatively, instead of just falling into the rut of doing the same 1 + 1 = win

[@AMVaddictionist]

Hot take from me is that I also enjoy the third partying to a degree, I think it's fun when my team notices a third party is going to happen and we completely shift our gameplan trying to get out of the hot stop and play from further away. Of course there's always too much but I haven't felt that in the elo i'm playing.

[@curtismoroni6228]

I agree heavily with this take

[@ParzivalNakamura]

You think intentionally getting the worst team into the final round is good for the game? You probably enjoy watching jake paul fights too.

[@liljashy1463]

I've said it several times, but you're just the best finals youtuber. Keep it up

[@AbhijeetSingh-xr2ex]

Even if Embark hides the rank at some point in the future I believe players should be able to see the ranks after the match, if you're having good matches and then suddenly get absolutely destroyed by a team, you deserve to know what kind of players you were facing and also for solo queue players if your teammates played badly or carried you then also it's a good to know knowledge what their rank was. Just removing ranks from being displayed is also debatable since knowing other teams skill also plays out in formulating strategies on how you should progress especially cuz of how matchmaking can put a variety of ranks in your match. Edit: Also found it kinda funny how you're worried about lockbolt while at the same time somebody made a huge post on reddit how lockbolt is so underwhelming. Although I did tell him that I can imagine so many ways it could become extremely annoying if buffed incorrectly. Told him a lot of scenarios where lockbolt could be especially useful at. And finally said that we do need to wait and see how everything works out before making these judgments and so does Embark.

[@Championclips15]

lol I saw the Reddit post about the lock bolt too, The lock bolt will probably be fine. from videos I saw during the preview event players were just sorta blasting it anywhere without much strategy, in turn making it seem kinda weak or not very useful.

[@ParzivalNakamura]

Why does it matter what elo the other team is? Why can’t you just play off of what is going on in the game? I’m really trying to understand the benefit of showing RS prior to a the games conclusion. It would make total sense to view that information after, but how does getting in the team with the lowest RS every single round make for good gameplay?

[@keinstein69]

Hyped af for the new season as always but... Shotgun winch and lockbolt heavy will be terrifying. Who thought that another stun/immobilize gadget for the strongest short range class was a good idea...

[@duckcat687]

1. Add Ranked weapon/gadget restrictions. Wait a week or two to gather feedback and go from there 2. Ranked-specific weapon/gadget stats. Keep the OP stuff for casuals and the boring balanced stuff for Ranked

[@Sage16226]

In terms of hiding rank, with if the at the beginning of a match the announcers say the mystery ranker/s(highest meddle in the lobby) but no one who's who that player is and no one besides your teammates can see your rank

[@zZMichael300Zz]

yes and I believe you can hide your name also

[@Bubblebeard0]

At worst I think being able to see the enemy team’s rank, as in plat, diamond, gold, is fine, just not specific numbers. At best, hiding enemy team’s rank until either you or them are knocked out is great imo. Not sure how the seeding dynamic would play in to that. Obviously being able to see your teammate’s rank is a given.

[@JordanGrayson00]

Nice video! I also like the sponsors but wish they did a little more with them. Would have loved to see a quick cash LTM where each team was sponsor locked so you got Iseult vs Holtow vs Engimo for real. It was always cool when I played as a random on world tour and got two other players on my same sponsor and we memed or bonded around that. I wish we leaned into that more.

[@Weary01]

I love the AKM, but the shotguns are just so much better, especially as so many classes are just able to get in your face. Really wish they didn’t make the magazine smaller, as those extra bullets were useful in pushing thru frontline defenses like mesh shield and dome shield. Plus it was helpful if you got winched etc. Love this game, hope to see the ARs coming back to the meta.

[@maymayman0]

I agree they should add the bullets back

[@ADR_JaiDe_N]

Been loving the FCAR again lately over the AKM , has more range and feels smoother imo.

[@thisguysgaming7246]

Im using an ar and its amazing I just get wrecked by the shields lol

[@nicocolorado192]

Always excited when a new Appoh video drops 🙌🏽

[@napalmsavage7717]

For lack of any better way to put it, balancing between casual and ranked/comp just has to be different, straight up, the second you start nerfing across the board to keep everything equal. The worse it feels when comp players demand some silly thing casuals enjoy be nerfed to irrelevance, or vice versa.

[@jetthardin4927]

Balance for the most players enjoyment I say. They shouldn't balance differently for comp than casual but they can't put in regulations on team comps or something

[@Johnnjlee]

For this game in particular, nerfing is better than buffing. If you start buffing stuff you lose out on that longer tkk that the entire game is balanced around. They’re buffing the sniper by 10 damage next season which I bet is going to be very annoying for anyone who isn’t a light just like how they buffed the LH1 and MP5 in season 3 and that went about as expected. Furthermore, they buffed the CL40 and the sword at the start of this season as well and it wasn’t fun to go against either. It doesn’t matter if you’re a casual or competitive player, being eliminated by these weapons even if you were using them yourself isn’t fun. Nukes were removed for similar reasons, it’s simply not fun to have your entire team eliminated in the blink of an eye and if they allow power creep by buffing everything then that’s what we get. It doesn’t matter what rank you’re at, a broken game isn’t fun for anyone.

[@trippalhealicks]

5:42 I've been complaining about this for a while. Seeing people's ranks on the scoreboard does nothing but artificially shift the gameplay. When I was solo grinding to diamond in Season2, every single match that had one team that was clearly ranked ahead of everyone else, that team was avoided, and pretty much walked away with a free win at their cashout, while the other 3 teams battled each other endlessly at the other cashout. It's absolutely game breaking and needs to be addressed.

[@BlackWaterGaming1]

I just looked at the leaderboards this morning. You're already top in ranked 🎉

[@porterogden6065]

appoh congrats on #1. also, please do a video on shak loadouts. ive been in between winch mesh and charge.

[@carlvargas7911]

I genuinely think the bow (in a good players hands) is actually very viable in top level play. I've been running it in Ruby elo and it KILLS. The quick 120 dmg is so good to poke with and very good in team fighting

[@klevmeister1g]

I think the game has found great footing with season 4 and it's only up from here. Everything feels just about viable and the current formula is working great. Feel free to yell at me in the replies if this comment jinxes everything

[@JigokuSenshi]

I think it would be fine for ranked matches to show your own seed level and ranks, but not other teams seed level or ranks.

[@JuiceManJ91]

The meta this season felt like the worse it has ever been. Love the game! Just felt like the M was super over picked, and the model was super over picked. Variety and possibility is what makes this game awesome. I also hated how individual performance wasn’t accounted for in RS scores. If I’m leading my team in every category and I have a teammate that just absolutely sells the game. I shouldn’t lose ~2k RS

[@4842396]

Season 4 made me try finals again after meta and made me fall in LOVE with the game. Pulled me away from battlefield as my main fps. Very excited for the future

[@spacecowboyristo]

The thing with the lockbolt is at least you can immediately just shoot it out so I'm not too worried about it yet. I might be the only one here but man how nice would it be if the competitive side had a completely different set of rules? I mean even to the point of weapons having different balancing from casual play. I know this would never happen but I think that would be the fix to this kind of stuff.

[@the_mochiking]

Re: shotguns - based on my experience (wt/quick cash mostly), I agree that the SA doesn't see much play in more casual situations, but I see quite a bit of model (still) and double barrel / matter. Those last two + knives make up probably 50% of lights I see. So while the SA could be comp balanced without impacting the casual experience much, I think the others would need to be considered more broadly.

[@sucettebleu346]

I wish they fixed the servers though because right now there is delay for every player action, its especially noticeable when using demat or deployables like a jumppad, and the more there are people fighting or stuff happening around the worse it is I feel like this is very bad for competitive play

[@carlvargas7911]

Winch is the most noticeable. I just love being winch through a wall/window when i have fully cleared LOS 😂

[@sucettebleu346]

@carlvargas7911 ye that too 😕

[@slaw1448]

Nah man I'm pretty sure that's just bad ping. Demat is unusable above 100ms.

[@sucettebleu346]

Well I shouldnt have bad ping in eu, and since there is no way to know ping...

[@WhiteVipor]

I’ve never had a single problem with the servers…

[@SS-ql6oi]

Was at 36k this morning. Thought I might have a chance at finally hitting diamond. Now 4 games later I’m at 29800 😊

[@septiarizqyrenaldi2038]

My rank score was 44.500 in 5 hours ago... I just lost for like 2k RS recently... Doesn't have a party and that's kinda sucks... What an ending of season 4 😞, I hope I can be there in season 5

[@Absolutely_Rand0m]

Welcome to elo hell, I’ve been stuck in silver even though I’m top fragging like every round As well as have teammates with the same game sense of the average light in power shift

[@frozenx1337]

@@Absolutely_Rand0m stop blaming ur teammates, u r the rank u deserve to be

[@drakegod429]

@@frozenx1337not always true tho

[@WhiteVipor]

@@Absolutely_Rand0myou play light don’t you

[@awwfulguy]

@@frozenx1337 ‘rank = skill’ 🤓

[@GaaraFPS]

Their needs to be some type of anti grief mechanics, I don’t know what’s gonna happen with what they do, but I’m over people seeing my nobody having ahhh name and being like oh let’s make his games a little bit harder, it’s just high elo players, just being remotely social gets you got and I’m not saying a great player but the griefing is terrible. Also hope they add some type of Smurf detection and start slamming people into their lobbies regardless of rank, like I understand they have something like that in place currently but I don’t think it’s strong enough. They have to dial in the competitive integrity

[@SkyrozzB]

its really frustrating how the matchmaking also works for ranked. maybe its to avoid longer que times but its been multiple occasions where my team and I have been placed against ruby teams (my friends are around gold). even more often the enemy teams will have literally double the RS than my friends and them seeing the enemy teams RS makes them almost give up in the lobby. also does not help that you sometimes lose 1k RS to those teams. usually its 300-600 for last place in those lobbies but not always. I feel like it should take the lowest rank in the que and search for players max 1 rank above or something. so gold players would only play against silver-plat (but group diamond and ruby as one so plat players get both potentially) also to limit boosting lobbies you would then limit the RS gains for the higher ranked player in said team. (even more than is already done) so a diamond cant group with golds for easy RS. maybe they could even limit it so that a diamond cant even que ranked with gold players or something.

[@nvbr1796]

Im 3 rewards away from finishing the battle pass, I can't grind the 300,000 xp required :(

[@VenomusScorpion]

I wonder if the data reshaper can counter the new gadjets

[@HyperboreanPC]

They're both placable, so it would make sense

[@jethro9919]

it works fully on the vortex gadget and the lockbolt, its ptob gonna be a hard counter for these gadgets which i really like

[@Chickensea10]

You can use vortexs on barrels! You can use it to pull people away from the cashout vice versa!

[@Azbynator]

I love the game but my biggest issues are spawns and ranked matchmaking. Having a team spawn on top of me feels so wrong. Or when we respawn, and the next team to respawn does it at the exact same place, so we automatically get third-partied feels like such BS, I really hope they'll tweak spawns again. Probably because there's a lack of players, but matchmaking is so wrong. We play at 32-37k RS and in the MAJORITY (so more than half) of our games, there will be a team with at least one Ruby player, with teammates either Diamond or Ruby (rarely plat like us, and sometimes a full Ruby stack). They're well above us so it shouldn't happen. I like the challenge but I'd rather get better by always playing with people slightly better than getting slapped by top 500. Maybe it's also because we always play as a 3-stack, I haven't tried solo q, but still, I'd rather have a longer queue than match up against top 500 so often, especially whenever I'm low plat.

[@guidomarchetti745]

Deathmatch. For the love of God, add DM. Also a Duel type of game. Like in CSGO. Amazing training ground that truly can make you better at the game

[@thetophatspy7204]

I just started playing after a long break and I don’t know if I should use the scope on the LH1?

[@dannyman5751]

damn bro youre too clean w the bow

[@itsofficialvaz]

There needs to be two different patches to be honest. A competitive and casual patch, it just needs to happen. If we start balancing top down we lose the fun factor of The Finals. Unfortunately, fun is different for everyone though… so there lies the issue lol.

[@abadoozydeezy]

This background gameplay is so clean

[@flintlocktingleberry]

good video!! you are nasty with the bow.. :0

[@Endami]

does any1 know at what time the update is releasing on Euw?

[@abadoozydeezy]

I think it will be afew hours after ranked ends

[@SkyrozzB]

if I remember correctly its either 10 or 12. i would place my bet on 12 (CET)

[@SkyrozzB]

ranked season if I calculated correctly ends at 8.30 CET but I just quickly looked at the timer a couple hours ago so I could be totally wrong about that

[@Wafflecombo54]

I did really like this current season me personally everything got nerfed so no meta change since s1 really. S5 will change everything in this game for sure 👍

[@omarmerchant4743]

Btw what sponsor did u choose Appoh. Just curious

[@omarmerchant4743]

I chose Vaiiya

[@Blobfishey-j4d]

Congrats on being number 1 in the world 🥳

[@GaaraFPS]

My favorite team in any esport are the off meta team, can’t wait to some pull out the riot shield on Vegas

[@TheXaymax]

When r u gon give away the battle pass codes

[@christopherrivera9299]

I was top 200 in season 3 and I didn't play much season 4 (I got to diamond) because I enjoyed playing other games. I will always love the finals but I lost my spark for the game. I got bored of the meta, bored of cash out, wt and rank being the same mode is wack in my opinion, lobby match making is a joke, and I personally hate the RS system in the game. I have a family with two kids I can't grind like I used too but I will be diamond in season 5 for sure Embark should make a ruby token so you can select what weapon you want to be ruby.

[@GamingBanddiitt]

Carnifex carrying the whole comp scene on his back. Let's be honest, the finals isn't the finals without lights.

[@shortRAGE]

lights randoms are so useless😂

[@GamingBanddiitt]

@shortRAGE they tear up 1 lobby and think they can do it every time. Always trying to 1v3

[@shortRAGE]

@ yes man 😂 Everytime i solo q and have a light in my team im doomed. But the last days solo q matchmaking is a pain. Everytime im the lvl70 and the other 2 are lvl10 or below. Met so many trolls when i wanted to revive they coin . Or they wont coin in when they should do

[@SkyrozzB]

@@shortRAGE I feel like a ton of players simply dont know when to coin and since theres only a limited amount of them in a tournament they are scared to use them in the first place.

[@shortRAGE]

@ Nah , not a light player who already is Emerald 1 in Worldtour 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@FreeUpDaHerb91]

I hope to see your name on a jersey one day!

[@Its_Lui]

So hype for the esport of the finals. Saw a vid from GaryTheMusicMan talking about the vewing experince. And hope embark can use the ideas that he points out or come up with other stuff for esport viewing.

[@ParzivalNakamura]

No mention of the top 500 using smurf accounts to abuse the seed system? dang

[@chrisd3925]

Please remove invis. Nothing ruins fun in shooters more than wall hacks(thankfully removed) and invisibility. It makes single shot weapons pointless, and makes it dull to play when you can't see who you're fighting

[@Crisisadvantage]

Fuck the xp gain bro even with the bonus I couldn’t get the last page bro fml

[@xChrisATx]

come back to hunt mate!

[@tyranus1111]

remove all melee

[@Pppoyqo]

Yuo top 1 rank 🎉

[@kauanbatista492]

I'm sorry but you complaining about ranked system is pathetical Appoh. You literally play with a fixed 3-stack for many seasons now and constantly stomp lobbies. What do you think is the experience like for people who can only play soloq? Name-chasing and "griefing us because we're rubys" is just pathetic. Theres many other problems to adress and this is definitely not of them.

[@itsyorpal_bish]

Gamer jerseys?? 😂 esports are not sports.

[@Evo_THEFINALS]

Nice aim:)

[@ItsNukem]

Buff FCAR!!!!

[@mathemagix_1222]

Season 4 has been my least favorite season by far, as much as I love the new content that has been added, the meta was very dry throughout the season as the 1887 and Pike dominated every lobby. I stopped mostly because of how abhorrent the ranked system was (season 2 was our best imo) and how it was impossible to climb as a solo, and it would remove ranked points even if your tm8s left. And every game felt like the top 2 teams mostly dominated the match, first plug/ double plug and they practically win every time. I really hope the new gun and gadget for heavy shake up the meta as well as light's new gadget. I also very much dislike the Halloween Wheel and how FOMO it felt, especially when they brought back the alien costume, like is Embark for or against FOMO? It really disheartened me and lost some of my trust. Not to mention a lot of the shop was subpar compared to other seasons. I really hope that season 5 can make a huge comeback, especially with the E-sports scene. On the flipside, the lore and community content has been very strong and I can't wait to see how creators make content in the future. Love u Appoh!

[@clappedshinobi2863]

I got so upset that they were selling a season 1 battle pass skin. My account feels less valuable now. Makes me not want to spend money on battle passes in the future if they’re just going to re release “limited time” skins.

[@carlvargas7911]

Nah the meta sucked, but the new RS system is great and transparent. I hated S2 because I'm just looking at up arrows or down arrows and guessing

[@mathemagix_1222]

I like that it's transparent for sure, but there are still issues like tm8's leaving and I still loose a ton of RS because of that, it happened waaaayyyy to frequently for me. And the seeding was a cool touch but I ended up bouncing back in forth between gold 2 and plat 4 when I'm usually between plat and diamond, all because the seeding does not take into account team composition and playstyle. I could be top of the lobby but loose tons of RS because my team won't communicate, or have different playstyles.

[@kevinaosei]

@@clappedshinobi2863 not wanting other people to have the samee cosmetic as you, so you can feel better than others. people like you are the reason we cant have anything on games anymore

[@clappedshinobi2863]

@ if I’m buying a battle pass that is only available for a limited time and grind to earn the exclusive skins it offers it makes you question your purchase when the same skin you grinded for is in the store on sale for anyone to just purchase without having to grind the way you did. Takes away the exclusivity and value of the battle pass in general.

[@KianFloppa]

we need fsr 3.1.2 upscaling update

[@khoukhou24-t2t]

no

[@Wavedashnoir]

This game is very cpu heavy, that likey won't do much

[@slaw1448]

who the fuck uses upscaling in an fps 😂

[@freed000]

Light main complaining about a lockbolt. the irony! lol.

[@realmaximusfps]

Too little too late

[@samschurink2104]

Under 10 min is beautiful

[@GoferON144hz]

S3 better 100% fr

[@theflare6306]

The ranked changes where peak frfr

[@sSteppingStones]

ofc

[@MChronicler]

Appoh gonna win 100k fr

[@sleep7220]

fix my sword thts all i care about

[@milesasher7848]

21 views in 3 minutes appoh washed

[@Wavedashnoir]

Zero likes in 30 mins you fell off

[@TheXaymax]

When r u gon give away the battle pass codes