I will keep my opinions on the maps to myself as I don't want to project a bias.
Allow us to select the map we want to play. Currently there are four maps: KC, WE, Olympus, and SP.
There is literally no defense as to why we can't have map rotations besides the good ol' reddit argument: "It'll split the playerbase!" which is just completely untrue.
Currently, according to feedback on the EA forums, reddit, and steam discussions, many players refuse to play the new map, Storm Point, because it isn't fun for them and they want to play WE or KC. If players refuse to queue up into Storm Point, and then others who love Storm Point refuse to queue into Kings Canyon, then that in of itself undermines the entire defense behind splitting the playerbase. The playerbase is already being split by the forced map rotations and the constant exclusion of certain maps in such rotations.
If we were able to select our maps, players who are "map loyal" would play more consistently. Then it becomes up to the player to switch maps to spice things up instead of forcing us all into a map that we're either uncomfortable with or don't want to play.
I can ALMOST understand forced map rotations in ranked, as it promotes complexity and breaks the flow of route spamming. It also increases the skill ceiling by forcing players out of their comfort zones, but for pubs it is a completely outdated and redundant system that many upon many players find egregious.
Let's look at some statistics. In an article from Dextero:
"On August 4, 2021, EA revealed that Apex Legends averages 13 million weekly active players. Season 9 also set a new record for daily peak players across all seasons."
From steamcharts alone, Apex averages in the ballpark of 175,000 players. There are plenty of players to accommodate map selections, and even if the playerbase was divided into 4 (assuming evenly, which is untrue.) then there would be 3,250,000 players per map.
From a developer standpoint, this would also aid in the retrieval of REAL feedback statistics without biased or falsified feedback reports. They would be able to see real player numbers from the maps, and would understand better which maps need to be reworked and which maps the community prefers and which maps end up being ghost towns.
From a marketing perspective, they would be able to gear their advertisements, tournaments, promotions, and sales towards the map that the playerbase favors. Brings more players in. Makes more players happy. More players will play more consistently instead of twiddling their thumbs waiting for maps to rotate which increases time spent in-game, which increases player exposure to in-game deals and players will want to grind more knowing they are going to be playing more often.
No reason why map selection hasn't been introduced, and I hope that someday they listen and give us what we've been begging for all along.
