Apex Legends is getting a brand new mode, offering up a spin on 3v3 elimination. Building on the foundation found in the Battle Royale, the team at Respawn has spent two years crafting this new take on Apex action. We go hands-on to check it out.

A snippet from our preview.

The word arena, in the shooter space at least, carries with it some weight. A legacy that includes names like Quake and other titles where fast movement across small maps is paired with scores and trying to rack up as many kills as you can as quickly as you can. As for Arenas, the connection to the name is merely coincidental even though the result -- in the broadest terms -- is 3v3 elimination played on smaller maps with teams looking to win the most rounds. Bread-and-butter Team DM stuff.

Prototyping for Arenas in Apex Legends goes back as far as September of 2019, where within King’s Canyon the team at Respawn experimented with a 24-player tournament that saw squads of three face off against each other in different locations -- eight squads in total, with four 3v3 battles happening simultaneously. In this, the earliest form of what would become Arenas, Respawn kept many of the elements that make-up the core BR side of Apex -- players spawning in without loot, having to find weapons and gear in the early moments of each round, scouting and planning on-the-fly based on exactly what you found.

Click Here For Apex Legends - Inside the New Arenas Mode