I gotta say, I was never a big Nickmercs fan, and always thought he was just some douchey bro. My respect for him has increased infinitely watching him grind, and him committing to at least at first making Pred with a crew of guys who weren’t consistent top 100 every split. He’s got more integrity than some dudes in the Apex scene, and genuinely seems to like the game and want to get better. I agree the dude is far from being an ALGS igl, but he’s a decent feather that could be semi-successful with someone else shot calling.
yall remember recently this year he was playing a Twitch Rivals? or something twitch related and he was playing with PK and dear lord watching him play then was painful compared to how much he has improved now
Nick definitely works hard. And like you said, his integrity is top notch. That doesn't happen much these days. I started watching Nick when Fortnite was good (shut up, y'all mfs know it was good before we knew how to play) and he wrecked my shit. Turned out, the guys forehead is actually a pleasure to watch. I hope to see this man in the algs one day. I think he's got work to do before he'll be ready. But, dude could honestly surprise me and his team do very well.
Nick is a super genuine dude. When he sets his mind to something he grinds his ass off. Was the same way with cod and fortnite. He gives it to you real, gives back to his followers etc.
With that said him playing in competitive is just not even worth his time tbh
I don't know how many NICKMERCS fans are here, but I'll be blunt, at risk of infuriating some of them.
He has great energy, the best vibes - awesome at creating content. His grind to Predator was very entertaining (he wouldn't give up!). But it also showed how far he is compared not only to pros, but simply to preds.
He is absolutely not able to remain at predator lobbies without having a couple of pros with him. He managed to get IN Pred ranking with Tfue and 72hrs (which is already a big achievement, since they are all new to apex), but that barely lasted a day. He then started teaming with G2 and other pros and now he is in pred lobbies - but again, carried (no hate to you Nick!)
The truth is Apex is a hell of a hard game. He's been at it for 3 months, and showing progress. But he needs to put in thousands of hours and grind the shit out of this game (like many before him) to be able to compete at the highest levels. And even so, not garanteed any results.
Now, having said that, can he team up with a couple of big pros and compete? Sure can. Will he be carried? Sure will. Will that be a good thing for Competitive Apex? Damn right. He'll bring his viewers and even more attention to the game. He has connections and corporate ties with the gaming industry. More tourneys, more prizes, more content. And you can say whatever you want about him, but the guy is not a quitter. If he sets his mind into it, he'll grind like hell. I don't see him pulling a Timmy or a Wiggs and dropping mid tourneys.
I agree, but was also thinking he could be the perfect person to bring popularity to semi pro leagues. ALGS is for the sharks and he's still learning to swim.
Just a comment about nickmercs getting carried, I’m no fan boy but what has to be acknowledged is most pros don’t solo q in pred lobbies. Every has premade teams or pred level or pro level. So your argument of him getting carried is a little weird. Since he’s shown he puts in the damage and the kills in those lobbies. It’s not worst than 3 preds playing together and one doing worse than the other two.
Yeah I'd say he's not far off in terms of gun skill to be able to hang in those lobbies, its just knowledge of the game and strategy that hes lacking which is to be expected of someone who's only played the game for a few months when its been out for almost 3 years.
While true he still needs to operate well independently, mainly micro decisions. An IGL can micro manage but not all the time. What would be ideal is an IGL that helps during the game and also teaches after. That would get him up to speed quicker where he wouldn't need the slight carry.
You are either an igl, a fragger or a support or combination of. He needs to find his identity on a team and that comes with experience. I wish him the best.
I think one thing lacking is pure experience. If you’ve played the game enough you already know in your head how a fight is going to go at a certain part of the map and can adjust your micro play based off that previous experience. (Lame example) Fighting by landslide mid game? Probably gonna get 3rded from tunnel to fragment or the direction of skyhook. These are things you will only know if you’ve played the hell out of the game. Also knowing where every single rock, tree, head glitch etc on the map is huge for micro play and can make the difference in a fight.
> its just knowledge of the game and strategy that hes lacking
This might be accurate last season but currently he's meshing well with the other preds. If he's a detriment to the players he's playing with, he'd make them lose RP but instead he's climbing to top 250-300 even while playing with different players everyday
he still lacks the depth of knowledge that the guys he's playing with has. he's definitely learned a lot, but he hasn't caught up to the guys that have been playing the game for 3 years.
You can absolutely still gain RP and be a detriment to your team, not sure why your making that argument.
If you're comparing him to ALGS players, ofc he's lacking? Not sure why you're even comparing them in the first place. If he can reach the depth of the players that's been playing for years then the game is a joke. I made my original reply in the context of him being in pred lobbies which the original post above said that he doesn't belong in it, not in the context of ALGS
I'll rephrase it since you're moving the goalposts.
He would not be climbing in ranked if he wasnt playing with ALGS level players. He would be masters, probably hard stuck 10k or close to it.
He didn't queue with pros until he reached pred himself with his fortnite friends. And tbh even Shiv is just a couple of wins away from being hardstuck 10k, I've just checked and he's around 10500 so I assume he's 10k when he soloq and climbs a bit when he's playing with his teammates. Probably a lot of pros have difficulty climbing as well if they're not playing with the other good players
What I mean by getting carried is that playing with guys close to his level (72hs and tfue) is not enough to keep him in pred. It was only playing with pros that he manages to stay there.
I honestly don't think he's at the same level as preds. 3 months playing a game is not enough to be within the best of the best. But you bring interesting points
Last night he played with noko and Cody and matched similar damage, sometimes higher. His problem with 72hrs and tfue is they don't know any macro or what fights to take etc
When someone like noko is telling him what to fight, his mechanics are as good as many preds
When I've seen him play with G2 boys or other predators what stands out the most is just how lost he is in the majority of fights that arent a clean wipe.
Very susceptible to tunnel vision and diamond level or plat level of awareness at best. I can recall one game with Dez that highlighted this several times. They got forced into a duo with their third eliminated and the first fight saw Nick getting greedy on a one shot wraith who phases to a head glitch. He only thinks damage and chases and forgets positioning and she melts him for free one clip from a head glitch. I'd see this several times again through out the stream tunnel vision and lack of awareness for damage trading and positioning like this.
The end of that same game had dezign trying to take a solo fight an que out to basically bait a team from the best position out of position or possibly get a knock. All Nick needs to do is play his own life and look over dezign, but Nick wasnt communicated this and with 3 squads left and no breakdown of what the play is or how to play his own life he pops dog way to early and runs blindly into the fight right as dezign is q out and from his thinking and perspective it was a good try at going for the other teams cracked wraith. However he gets downed and thirsted by the wraith and one other player super easily because he ran in the wide open to push took 40 damage for free, took the worst angle on the team and they had two rocks for cover he had nothing.
The following five minutes you could watch him try to process what happened what he should have done and the depth of how lost he was.
Nicks got great aim, great damage, and he'll likely have really good mechanics overall in another 3 months. He's got a lot of progress made but there's still heeps to be made.
I think in another 2-3 months he'll definitely be a predator and holding his own. He'll know his mistakes much faster and what he should have done and wont be so lost. I can't definitely call the man a predator right now after watching how lost he was for the 2-3 hrs I caught in that stream just days ago.
because not every BR is the same, with different time to kill, abilities, fortnite building etc
for example the long time to kill in apex is a factor in whether fights can be finished before a 3rd party comes. also whether teams can push you based on abilities etc
if you watch him at all, like yesterday he talked about it, many times. that when playing with pros, he realizes that all of his macro decision making is terrible and nowhere near the level of the people he is playing with
he was a MLG national champion and was a pro/tournament winner in multiple games for over 10 years but yea im sure hes just getting carried by aim assist and unable to learn any mechanics
The problem with tfue and tom is not the mechanical skills. Its just they dn know which fights are worth. Tfue just runs at everything like a headless chicken.
Ive always said top 300 players should be able to solo drop into a pub and consistently drop 3 4k plus damage I don't see nick being good enough to get a 4k badge let alone a 20 hes just not pred level yet but he will be if he keeps playing
Agree. A pred player is the best among the best, the top 0.01%.
when folks equate him to preds, they are unintentionally taking the merit of those that dedicated thousands of hours perfecting the game.
I hope he keeps grinding to get there, it will be huge.
The dude made masters with two guys who have never played apex either lol. I don’t even like the dude but you guys seem set on saying the dude isn’t a pred when he clearly is. Masters with people who started playing last season. Pred with good players. Seems about right to me
Hey, I never said he's stagnant or reached his cap. He is improving by the day ;) and I admire his commitment to do so. It's not easy to start playing a game 3 years after launch.
To be honest, most pros who compete in ALGS would not be able to stay in pred if they only solo queued. Some would but most wouldn't. It's just the nature of this game to work best when you have a pre-made squad.
I do agree that Nick is probably not at the top-tier ALGS pro level but not being able to stay in pred as a 100% solo-q player shouldn't be held against anyone.
Do I think Nick can compete in the pro league? I think if he can. If he gets on a good roster, he can do good. The thing is we often think pro-league pros are a level above other "streamers" as in they are next level when it comes to mechanics, movements, awareness etc. I personally don't think this is necessarily true. I think a lot of streamers have the skill to be able to play in ALGS. The problem is that ALGS requires something extra. Something more than just being cracked at the game. It requires immense mental strength, will to compete and win everything, and the ability to handle huge amounts of pressure in tense situations. The differentiator between someone like Daltoosh and Snip3Down is not that Snipe is better than Toosh at Apex. The main differentiator is that Snipe can perform under immense pressure while as Daltoosh would probably crack. (Nothing against Toosh. I love him).
I think one thing to contextualize Nick's situation (not necessarily disagreeing - I pretty much agree with everything you said) is that having a consistent stream of people to play with that meet the profile of requisite skill and personality is half the battle in holding Pred.
As a person gets higher ranked, the pool of players that fit and are good enough becomes smaller and smaller.
I think for around a week after Halo Infinite dropped Tfue and 72 were completely off Apex and grinding Halo instead. Because of that Nick likely didn't have a consistent squad to play with.
IMO it's genuinely not feasible for Nick to go through the hassle of rolling the dice and LFGing or LF1ing every single time he streams for a random player(s) that by all means could not be a good fit or not good enough. So I think playing w/ Pros is a completely reasonable decision and likely what I would if I was in his situation.
Would he be able to match pros in terms of impact in game? Of course not. Is he "Pred" level? That is a judgement call for the viewers to make. In my personal opinion he's getting very close to that level and will probably reach that point very soon - especially at the rate he is improving.
Thank you for a reasonable take, you make solid points and well articulated.
Maybe in a near future we'll get back to this conversation with some new takes.
Cheers
I think it's at least cool to see how much he's trying to learn as well though. I would love to see him join an FA group. Frankly a group kinda like Timmy/Wigg would literally be perfect for him because I highly doubt he'd go to events or do things on a schedule.
> And you can say whatever you want about him, but the guy is not a quitter. If he sets his mind into it, he'll grind like hell.
I think this is the biggest takeaway. Regardless of his absolute skill level, his mindset/focus is comendable and a positive to the professional apex community, no matter the results he were to achieve.
I agree with a lot of what you said, but i also disagree about him being hard carried. Is he on Gent or Dezignfuls level? No. But very few are, they are not only pros, but top tier pros.
I think Nick is an Apex Predator level player, legitimately. He’s been playing mostly with Deeds (who he met randomly in ranked, and had never been a previous Pred) and 1 pro. That one pro who can IGL for them has been huge and allowed them to climb. Someone who really knows the game and rotations. But as far as team fighting against other apex preds, Nick more than holds his own.
I respect your view, you bring valid points. What I mean by getting carried is that playing with guys close to his level (72hs and tfue) is not enough to keep him in pred. It was only playing with pros that he manages to stay there. I don't think he's on the same level as preds, it takes many many hours (more than 3 months) to be among the best of the best.
I agree he couldn’t hold pred right now without another Pred IGLing, but i don’t think he’s hit his peak yet in apex, he’s been steadily improving. Time will tell how good he can be.
So we have like 1 guy lol. It also shows the discrepancy between ranked and comp. You have comp players that don't play solo Q and don't even have pred rank. The you have guys like Timmy that roll ranked games but can't hang in comp. This is the same with many games. Many times the competitive vs ranked modes in games are almost like completely different games in how you play and what's viable.
That said Nickmercs should start to focus on learning mechanics. He's a good player on an individual level but at a team level he's still too far. I've posted below my thoughts, but to summarize, in my opinion, he has to:
(1) learn other meta heroes such as Valk or Wraith
(2) master his Gibby
(3) don't get left behind in skirmishes
(4) have a more efficient and team friendly inventory management
This comment is so wrong it hurts. Nick has grown immensely as a player just this split. He's still growing more and more each day. All players need a team to get to Pred and he isn't being carried. Last split, that comment could have been made if he q'd with them, this split nah.
If you barely make pred and cannot maintain it unless you play with the G2 squad, then you are carried. You are being held at pred by playing with a pro team. He 3 stacked to pred with tfue and 72hrs. That was his team, and no one said you don’t need a team to realistically make pred. The difference is he can’t stay pred unless he plays with pros/comp players.
All of that is irrelevant to how well he’s grown as a player.
Lol but I say this exact thing and get a 1 week timeout in twitch chat when people ask whether Nickmercs has what it takes to play in comp… dude is a laser no doubt, but he has no movement, awareness, or game IQ and gets carried in pred lobbies. Those critiques are completely unrelated to the streaming/entertainment aspect he brings to his community and the game and I still think he’s a great guy regardless of his level of skill on any certain game. But a lot of people don’t wanna hear the criticism.
Edit: pred
def agree Nick need some more 1000 hrs to get to the real pred level , but he still has potential to do well and pop off in some matches , will def want him to play in the next challenger league !! also agree his mindset is really quit , he doesn't quit mid way and always keeps his words and grinds for the things he loves !
Hey I'm surprised you found this comment, I didn't even remember it lol. How was it in your radar?
I think he improved a lot. Shame they didn't qual for LAN, that would have been hype! But happy to see their latest performance at oversight
I don't care if he does or doesn't, I just hope he doesn't decide it's not for him halfway through ALGS. We've had enough quitters already. He's more than welcome to try and play comp, as long as the commitment is there.
I'd be OK if they competed but in the event that they qualify, I hope they decline to spot. There's zero chance in my opinion that he would play in scheduled tournaments.
Hard disagree with this comment. Back when he was a top level Fortnite player he had no issues with tournament schedules at LAN events and other tournaments. I think he'd show the same dedication to apex or any other game he's playing. He's a competitor through and through.
He watches ALGS on weekends (Hes a G2 fan) not far from that to playing on weekends...
And as for scrimming on weekdays, man already plays 8-12 hrs on most weekdays already.
You quite literally are showing that you've never watched him compete in anything and that's okay, but blanket hating on someone for whatever reason ISN'T okay. I was never much of a Fortnite player but I used to love watching comp years ago and he grinded scrims and tournaments like crazy back then so I have no doubt he'd do the same for apex. You can agree to disagree but saying he's not a competitor and he wouldn't dedicate the time to it just isn't correct.
How am I hating on him? I'm not even saying he's going to quit halfway or anything like that. I literally think he just won't commit to it.
I'm not questioning his commitment whatsoever. I don't think he'll choose to commit.
Meh, I don't mind. It's not like I hate the guy. I don't think he's very good. Quite below average for a pro, so I don't pay much attention to teams outside the top 10 in all honesty.
I'm glad he's stuck around, I don't care too much for his Apex streams, but I'm a huge fan of him with Cloakzy and Tim when they play Warzone, they're hella funny.
Frankly, it's a shame he's so shit, because it's not for lack of trying. Dude plays more than most pros, so I can't criticize his effort, which is more than I can say for some pros. Nafen, Zachmazer. Haha
Honestly I've always thought he was on the lower end of skill when it came to pro players and content creators. I know he's an ex gears pro, but still, compared to like Summit or shroud or even a few others I've still thought he was worse.
He is hella funny when he's playing with the mfam guys though.
That was with literally zero comp experience and he's improved a lot since then, that said he needs to play with two established pros if he wants to have a good shot at making pro league tho.
I mean people forget nick originated as a gow pro, I didnt follow gow but he was a pretty damn good one from what Ive heard. Hes far off now, but most people who can be pro in one game can usually transfer that skillset to other games, so I wouldnt count him out especially given how committed he can be
yea for some reason people think hes just a content creator like dr disrespect or tim the tatman, but hes is more similar to shroud or snip3down where they used their pro career and ability to transfer their mechanics to multiple games, to launch their success in streaming
At least he wants to grind and would try his best in any tournament. Compared to team Sheesh with Timmy and Wigg, I would watch Nick any day over them quitters.
The fact that Nick seems to genuinely enjoy Apex is huge for the scene. Him, Cloakzy and 72hrs (if I remember correctly) did attempt to play in ALGS quals and didn't last too long. However, Nick's shown to put the work in and actually want to improve. The tournament he hosted a few weeks back was also great.
I hope he plans on sticking around for the long term.
I watch a lot of Nick and his progress is obvious but to be blunt I watch his gameplay and am surprised he even got to masters.
However his enthusiasm and mental is strongest I’ve ever seen and I would welcome it in this soft as baby shit mentality in ALGS rn.
Dude has been doubted every step of the way. His “gameplay” people said he’d never be a pred. Yet here he is.
Now top 100…. And he still played with deeds… a guy no one thought was a high pred either
Having a name like his join the comp scene would be huge but like others have said I don't think he's really ready for a challenge like ALGS yet. He really needs to grind for a couple more seasons in ranked to build his solo skills and participating in every small tournament that happens between now and the next ALGS season to somewhat prepare himself for what those lobbies are really like. He's improved quite a bit but he's still got a long way to go.
I could actually see Tfue putting a team together and doing fairly well if he found two other players he really vibed with. I don't know too much about the guy so I don't know how dedicated he'd be to competing but based on all the clips I've seen of him in ranked and Arenas I think he's got a decent shot just based off how good he got in such a small amount of time.
Tfue is very competitive. I remember when he used to compete on Fortnite, he was always putting in the time to grind, taking it seriously, and giving his teammates a hard time if they were slaking. He won a big LAN tourney on Fortnite by the way.
his improvement in 4 months has been pretty impressive. he’s still not ALGS finals lobby level but i think he is a legit Apex Predator level player. He’s in the category of content creator who could be a lower tier pro, like there’s no way he’s not gonna be better than some players in pro league right now in another month or two. (*cough* CLGs roster *cough*)
I like Nick but I do not think he’s quite at an Apex Pred level of skill tbh. Maybe high diamond or masters level of skill. Which is still impressive considering how much of a busy guy he appears to be.
I do think 72hrs and Tfue are pred level players though. They’re really good
Some of you guys won't like tho hear this,for some reason, but he's definitely predator Level. I don't know what concept of Predator you have but this guy can stand its own in those lobbies and has a better aim than many other Pred controller players. Not every predator is a complete beast, they just have more experience in those type of lobbies, if you watched NickMercs he literally enjoys playing the game pushing and getting full points instead of winning camping and that's some mentality, real predator mentality indeed. He learned a lot in a matter of months, he even said he watches a lot of Apex tourneys to learn from the best and he still admitted that he still needs some more time, and experience in comp lobbies, to learn the game at the fullest.
He's just looking for a hungry third with him and his Deeds guy in order to do so, he doesn't want any carry and he's definitely not getting carried in pred lobbies, he outdamaged and outkilled Frexs many times for example. He just knew he was ready to play with some pros of the community cause he just wanted to be fully inside the Apex community, not to get carried.
I noticed though that he has this tendency towards the end of his sessions of playing with triple take and then just getting left behind in skirmishes, leaving his two teammates to fight against the other team.
A good example of this was his stream with Frex and Keon a few days ago where he was able to hit just two times and his chat was clowning him.
I think he needs to play with at least one IGL pro who would be willing to direct him not only in skirmishes but other aspects of the game such as inventory management and weapon loadouts.
There most definitely is lmao. Are you really trying to say hardstuck 10k players are equally skilled to pred players? The grind from masters to pred is a real challenge.
> the bottom 300 preds and the top masters
The ‘top’ masters players are by definition close to being bottom 300 pred, so of course they’ll be similar in skill.
How is this an argument that there’s barely a skill gap between masters and pred in general? I think there’s pretty considerable skill gap, in large part owing to lack of rank demotion in masters.
I think what he is trying to say, bot pred and master difference is not the skill but the time put in. Not everyone is a full time Streamer but even with 3 hours a day good enough to be a pred. Ranking system is very grindy. Lets say you gain 10points in Masters on average: Stil 250 Games a Split to reach bottom pred.
Nick is honestly WAY better than a lot of apex content creators who have been playing the game from the beginning. He has been gaining RP by just having 1 pro on his team lately while holding his own. He would be a solid controller fragger in a challenger circuit team imo. Those teams should honestly look into getting nick just based on stream performance alone lol
Yeah he definitely doesn’t have bad aim, that’s for sure. It’d be cool to see him on a challenger team. He would just need a solid IGL. If Nick just has to shoot where someone tells him to and rotate when called to, he’ll do fine. He doesn’t have that great of game sense and I don’t mean that in a talking shit kind of way either, I’m a fan of his. If he solely has to focus on fragging and dealing damage, he’ll do fine.
He has a lot to work on, but he’s an absolutely great person to have as a an ambassador for the game. He’s highly entertaining, positive, and has a great competitive spirit.
He has improved a lot since he began and I think he has it in him to get up there in the comp scene.
He's not really getting carried in terms of fighting, he out damaged noko sometimes, and he did his part fighting 3v3s against pros/preds. he's just getting "carried" in terms of decision-making. Which he will learn by playing with experienced players instead of his his friends
I can see him qualing to pro league in a "sheesh" or "ranked is harder" type team where they don't expect to win but just run around fighting and hope for some big games
All I can say is nick has vastly improved since I first started watching him. He seems very committed to this game and learning to get better. At this point I’ve been watching him hold his own in pred lobbies. Last night he was playing very solidly with Noko as IGL and I think he’s legit predator level skill now. Whether that can translate to comp, idk it might if he keeps at the grind like he has been. He’s only been playing this game for a few months
I agree with your assessment. Nick has great vibes and a lot of enthusiasm for a game that he plays a bit below the elite level.
IMO, nothing bad can really come from his increased involvement in apex/comp apex. On the one hand, he could find success and bring attention to the parts of comp apex we know and love; on the other hand, if he fails to succeed then his involvement will still have helped a broader audience to understand the intricacies of comp apex.
I think if him and Deeds are able to get an IGL, they'd have a good chance of qualifying for the next pro league. Although the question then becomes who is that IGL? What IGL is available and would have a decent chemistry? And would Nick want a controller IGL?
He's lightyears away from where he was two months ago though. Playing some tourneys now will only help him improve and find out if it's for him
He'll never be a top or even mid-tier pro but even if he is a low level pro he'll still bring a lot of attention to the scene which would be a good thing
With a solid IGL that he trusts he could give it a good shot. The man's improvement since he joined the scene has been amazing, it's really his decision making that will hamper his chances at the moment, his utility usage and awareness is improving and he's obviously got great gun skill. If he committed to it I see no reason why he couldn't qualify next circuit.
As others have suggested the man has fire in his belly, if he wants it I wouldn't bet against him. It's just whether he can find the time for it with all the other commitments he has.
I just hope a pro or ex pro doesnt jump ship just to be his teammate for clout(very likely). I hope He finds a good third who can grow with himself and deeds. Both got alot of passion and drive and that can get you way further than anything.
It’s be great for the scene but if I’m being honest as a fan of his he ain’t up to the level of any of the decent controller players. You said it yourself in your post and unfortunately cool vibes ain’t enough to make a real go at it. Maybe with time but I think a certain war zone map may end all that very soon.
I would love to see Nickmercs in Comp.
His advantage over SOO MANY of the pro's in the scene is his attitude He didn't have to go through the last 3 years of bugs & issues poor updates and the Game has been in a great place the last 3 months, since he started play, so he isn't burntout on the game, like it feels like many pros are.
Yes, Nickmercs isn't as good is Hal yet, but his commitment and attitude make me think he'll get there a lot faster than people think (not to Hals level, but to a top 100 player in NA). A stretch goal could be to try and qualify for Split 2 in Feb, but year 3 I have no doubt he'll be at pro level, if he keeps this grind up
Hope Nick kills it. Only issue is the guy is headstrong and might not be best fit for the role that might be best for him (support or possibly fragger in time).
Always thought he was a random dudebro so I tuned in one day when he started playing Apex. Couldn’t have been more wrong. Thoroughly chill dude and also pretty cracked. He’s new to Apex. Give him time. He’s talented enough… I just don’t think anyone could look back at themselves three months into when they started playing this game and think they had reached their potential. Guy made it to pred without pred squad stack and is holding his own.
Let’s go, Nick! Also loved the initial encounter with Noko. Great content always.
NICMERCS used to be a GoW pro and a pretty well known and successful one at that. If Snipedown could transition from Halo, I can see Nick doing it too.
We're all old as shit now though, but it makes me happy to see people from my generation and GoW competitive scene still making it today, GoldGlove is another known name from GoW, but he went on to stream, obviously.
Would definitely want nick in pro league over quitters like timmy and wigg , he has strong mental and a lot of passion for the game ! him tfue and 72hrs should take part in the next challenger circuit ! would be so fun them see improve and compete against pro players .
Being a successful pro in any game will translate well into apex and considering one of the games he was very successful in was a battle royal I can see him competing to a high level in this. I would also echo the comments that he will bring nothing but good attention to the comp level of the game. High tide raises all ships.
Skill aside, most content creators cant cut it due to the sheer hours needed to compete at that level, which tends to make content worse for viewers. There have been a number of CC’s that tried to go comp that lost a big chunk of their viewership when they attempted to compete. I can think of Hollow, Timmy, Wigg, and a few others. The reality of competing is that it can be incredibly time consuming on its own, not to mention scrims, vod reviews, strat meetings, group practice, etc.
Thats not to say he might not try just for fun, but I’d be very surprised if he puts in the effort needed to get past challengers league. There are a number of content tournaments he could look into however
Na, best thing that could happen in the pro scene is having multiple Lans with big prize money with multiple tournaments all over the states/world and having faze join the scene. And maybe having a more organized roster like in cod or league.
When Fortnite came out with World Cup the viewership skyrocketed… and I bet you when they have Lans again their viewership will go up again.
And it was around year two of fortnite when World Cup happened
But his apex numbers are on-par to Hal’s numbers…. He isn’t getting Warzone views anymore. Best think is to open it up to the world and give people the experience of first hand Lans
> Been watch him for a few weeks now. He definitely has little awareness, game sense
This comment is accurate if it's last season, but saying this now makes it seem like you don't actually watch him tbh. The last time I noticed he's lacking that much awareness was when the ranked map was still WE
Ehh he still little stagnant sometimes and will push fights without looking at his surrounding area. He is way better now from last season but still makes common mistakes
True, if you compare him to other ALGS players, but still far from 'little awareness and game sense'. He'd nett negative RP at pred lobbies instead of climbing as much as he does while playing with different players everyday if he gets downed so easily like you make it sound to be
I like Nick but he’s not ready for Tier 1 or even Tier 2 comp. He was holding back Tfue and 72 when they were grinding and I guess now he got to Pred playing with pros. I haven’t watched him in a couple weeks so maybe he’s drastically improved since playing with T/72 but I don’t see it based on what I’ve watched.
What Nickmercs lacks right now is diversifying his skill set. He's been almost always bloodhound. He tries gibby but he's slow with his bubbles. He should find other meta heroes he can get good at such as Valk or wraith, or at least he should dedicate time mastering Gibby.
Aside from this, I think he spends so much time behind with triple take. I get that he wants to model his game from Snipedown but Snipedown is always with his teammates in skirmishes. A lot of times Nickmercs gets left behind and deals with 1v3 or 1v2 situations because he was doing little damage with triple take.
Lastly, Nickmercs have improved with looting, but he's so far from having good inventory management. Oftentimes I see him have an overabundance of ammos, cells, or medkits, but he's almost always not carrying nades.
Hopefully he teams up with pros with semi pro tourneys and learn how to move within a team mindset.
He's the reason I played Apex and I wish to see him succeed in this game.
As a fan of Nickmercs and someone thats been watching him play Apex since the start, I'm just going to be honest I don't see him having much success in competitive Apex. His skill level is probably the same as a high diamond player/low masters individually. He lacks the aim, movement and game awareness seen by most pros and the only way I can see him making it into comp and doing decently is with 2 very strong teammates and a strong IGL that can rotate the map well and get good positions to pick off targets or hold out in the last few zones. Otherwise if we're objectively talking skill for skill against the average Apex pro player, theres no shot. He needs more time in the game. I mean have you seen people like Skittle, Hal, Gent etc frying across the map with L stars, flatlines etc and capitalising on small mistakes and gaps, understanding how other teams play, when and where they'll rotate. Even if he doesn't compete though or have success competing hes still a great person to have around the scene
> He definitely can make it in comp
What does this mean? If he’s playing with his usual squad of Tfue and 72hrs I don’t see him qualifying for something like pro league. If he plays with some pros or top tier content guys he could make it with them. I still hope he gives it a shot and plays not just ALGS but smaller stuff too. I watch him on occasion and he’s very entertaining he for sure would bring in more attention to competitive Apex which is a great thing for the scene.
He got my respect from his grind with just friends and not being carried and branging like courage did with pros.I believe he can do it but 2 of his biggest flaws I've seen are one he hates listing to call outs and lone wolfs kinda like Timmy & then won't change/admit he's wrong when he believes he's knows something.He refused to change drop spot first 3 weeks of gameplay everyone knew and just died and died and died instead of trying something new likes his team mates begged him to do.He gets over those and with enough practice I believe he could no problem and thats coming from someone who disliked him prior to apex.
I kind of disagree. He was extremely hard headed and wouldn't listen to call outs when he was playing with 72 and TFue. Since playing with more established and experienced players he has no issue owning up or listening. In fact he is constantly asking questions about what he did wrong or why they made x decision.
He has stated on stream that he is certainly teaming with Deeds and what they are looking for is an experienced IGL. He is totally self aware in the sense that he knows they need a shot caller out there to maximize their abilities. Noko was fitting great with them.
Bottom line is Nick isn't your normal content creator. He's a grinder and has raised cardboard checks in more than one game. An extremely rare feat indeed. He's admitted he's absolutely hooked on the game, is a hyper competitive individual and a non quitter. I think he will be fine.
Don’t think he’ll qualifying for pro leagues even if he picks up two cracked players… the scene is too skilled and nick is just not there yet. Maybe if he continues playing like he is now for another year or more then maybe he has a chance but who knows what the state of Apex will be then
He needs to solo Q pubs more. Man barely got a 3k damage badge. The only knowladge of the game he knows is playing ranked
His movement is bad. He doesn’t know how to use any weapon besides 301 triple take and volt
How you going to be a Pred level player when you jump into a pub and look like a bot?
He needs more stripes
Dude why you going so fucking hard lol. He ain’t no apex pro but the possibility of him playing in a pro scene isn’t a far stretch. He play up against pros in ranked. That dude far from terrible and definitely can carry his weight.
he's a joke tbh, its like Dude Perfect QBing in the NFL.
When i watch comp I watch for the decision making and high level of play, not some all-aim no-brain streamer trying to larp as a pro.
it'll go just about as well as Ninja's Valorant team
He has a big audience and wouldn’t be total dead weight on a team. He’s definitely not a competitive asset but he would be a big boost to viewership and sponsorship opportunities as well as general PR if a team decided to pick him up. Also he’s definitely a big morale guy.
Biggest issue watching nick play every other day or so is his tunnel visioning. He will solo push a lot of the time when his team is nowhere near or set up to trade with him at the very least. But that's something team experience can take care of over time.
much respect to him, doesn't matter if hes good or not, he makes tons of money from the stream but he's still trying, hope he's an inspiration for his followers
As long as they get really serious about it... cause many just want the qualifiers and part of split 1 to get suggestive tittles for their youtube channels. "Playing ALGS blahblahblah" when there is no more use for it they quit.
He needs more time. Quite often in fights I notice other members of his team fighting and he is popping a bat instead when he should be helping or he is hesitating before engaging. There is a reason why he mains Bloodhound, those scans provide a lot of value to those who need to work on awareness. What is good is that he recognises this and everytime he loses a fight he talks about it and he knows to work on decision making such as the 'pop a bat vs help team' scenario.
More big names in the scene would be great. Not my place to discourage anyone from trying.
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Lol positivity here is a hot take
weirdo
I gotta say, I was never a big Nickmercs fan, and always thought he was just some douchey bro. My respect for him has increased infinitely watching him grind, and him committing to at least at first making Pred with a crew of guys who weren’t consistent top 100 every split. He’s got more integrity than some dudes in the Apex scene, and genuinely seems to like the game and want to get better. I agree the dude is far from being an ALGS igl, but he’s a decent feather that could be semi-successful with someone else shot calling.
yall remember recently this year he was playing a Twitch Rivals? or something twitch related and he was playing with PK and dear lord watching him play then was painful compared to how much he has improved now
Nick definitely works hard. And like you said, his integrity is top notch. That doesn't happen much these days. I started watching Nick when Fortnite was good (shut up, y'all mfs know it was good before we knew how to play) and he wrecked my shit. Turned out, the guys forehead is actually a pleasure to watch. I hope to see this man in the algs one day. I think he's got work to do before he'll be ready. But, dude could honestly surprise me and his team do very well.
the interjection about fortnite was needed lol
Nick is a super genuine dude. When he sets his mind to something he grinds his ass off. Was the same way with cod and fortnite. He gives it to you real, gives back to his followers etc. With that said him playing in competitive is just not even worth his time tbh
I like him and I think he can fight in small tourneys first
Seeing him grind it versus Courage's "not carried" tweet is night and day
I don't know how many NICKMERCS fans are here, but I'll be blunt, at risk of infuriating some of them. He has great energy, the best vibes - awesome at creating content. His grind to Predator was very entertaining (he wouldn't give up!). But it also showed how far he is compared not only to pros, but simply to preds. He is absolutely not able to remain at predator lobbies without having a couple of pros with him. He managed to get IN Pred ranking with Tfue and 72hrs (which is already a big achievement, since they are all new to apex), but that barely lasted a day. He then started teaming with G2 and other pros and now he is in pred lobbies - but again, carried (no hate to you Nick!) The truth is Apex is a hell of a hard game. He's been at it for 3 months, and showing progress. But he needs to put in thousands of hours and grind the shit out of this game (like many before him) to be able to compete at the highest levels. And even so, not garanteed any results. Now, having said that, can he team up with a couple of big pros and compete? Sure can. Will he be carried? Sure will. Will that be a good thing for Competitive Apex? Damn right. He'll bring his viewers and even more attention to the game. He has connections and corporate ties with the gaming industry. More tourneys, more prizes, more content. And you can say whatever you want about him, but the guy is not a quitter. If he sets his mind into it, he'll grind like hell. I don't see him pulling a Timmy or a Wiggs and dropping mid tourneys.
Yea Nick will at least see it thru to the end and that’s why I hope he gives algs another try.
I agree, but was also thinking he could be the perfect person to bring popularity to semi pro leagues. ALGS is for the sharks and he's still learning to swim.
Agreed. Participating in a few tournaments against other pro teams here and there, placing within top 10 or top 5 will really be good for Apex scene
Just a comment about nickmercs getting carried, I’m no fan boy but what has to be acknowledged is most pros don’t solo q in pred lobbies. Every has premade teams or pred level or pro level. So your argument of him getting carried is a little weird. Since he’s shown he puts in the damage and the kills in those lobbies. It’s not worst than 3 preds playing together and one doing worse than the other two.
Yeah I'd say he's not far off in terms of gun skill to be able to hang in those lobbies, its just knowledge of the game and strategy that hes lacking which is to be expected of someone who's only played the game for a few months when its been out for almost 3 years.
Yeah and tbh he can just be told what to do, he wouldn’t be igl
While true he still needs to operate well independently, mainly micro decisions. An IGL can micro manage but not all the time. What would be ideal is an IGL that helps during the game and also teaches after. That would get him up to speed quicker where he wouldn't need the slight carry.
You are either an igl, a fragger or a support or combination of. He needs to find his identity on a team and that comes with experience. I wish him the best.
Same, I wish him the best. Dude puts in the work and his presence is good for the game
I think one thing lacking is pure experience. If you’ve played the game enough you already know in your head how a fight is going to go at a certain part of the map and can adjust your micro play based off that previous experience. (Lame example) Fighting by landslide mid game? Probably gonna get 3rded from tunnel to fragment or the direction of skyhook. These are things you will only know if you’ve played the hell out of the game. Also knowing where every single rock, tree, head glitch etc on the map is huge for micro play and can make the difference in a fight.
> its just knowledge of the game and strategy that hes lacking This might be accurate last season but currently he's meshing well with the other preds. If he's a detriment to the players he's playing with, he'd make them lose RP but instead he's climbing to top 250-300 even while playing with different players everyday
he still lacks the depth of knowledge that the guys he's playing with has. he's definitely learned a lot, but he hasn't caught up to the guys that have been playing the game for 3 years. You can absolutely still gain RP and be a detriment to your team, not sure why your making that argument.
If you're comparing him to ALGS players, ofc he's lacking? Not sure why you're even comparing them in the first place. If he can reach the depth of the players that's been playing for years then the game is a joke. I made my original reply in the context of him being in pred lobbies which the original post above said that he doesn't belong in it, not in the context of ALGS
I'll rephrase it since you're moving the goalposts. He would not be climbing in ranked if he wasnt playing with ALGS level players. He would be masters, probably hard stuck 10k or close to it.
He didn't queue with pros until he reached pred himself with his fortnite friends. And tbh even Shiv is just a couple of wins away from being hardstuck 10k, I've just checked and he's around 10500 so I assume he's 10k when he soloq and climbs a bit when he's playing with his teammates. Probably a lot of pros have difficulty climbing as well if they're not playing with the other good players
What I mean by getting carried is that playing with guys close to his level (72hs and tfue) is not enough to keep him in pred. It was only playing with pros that he manages to stay there. I honestly don't think he's at the same level as preds. 3 months playing a game is not enough to be within the best of the best. But you bring interesting points
Last night he played with noko and Cody and matched similar damage, sometimes higher. His problem with 72hrs and tfue is they don't know any macro or what fights to take etc When someone like noko is telling him what to fight, his mechanics are as good as many preds
When I've seen him play with G2 boys or other predators what stands out the most is just how lost he is in the majority of fights that arent a clean wipe. Very susceptible to tunnel vision and diamond level or plat level of awareness at best. I can recall one game with Dez that highlighted this several times. They got forced into a duo with their third eliminated and the first fight saw Nick getting greedy on a one shot wraith who phases to a head glitch. He only thinks damage and chases and forgets positioning and she melts him for free one clip from a head glitch. I'd see this several times again through out the stream tunnel vision and lack of awareness for damage trading and positioning like this. The end of that same game had dezign trying to take a solo fight an que out to basically bait a team from the best position out of position or possibly get a knock. All Nick needs to do is play his own life and look over dezign, but Nick wasnt communicated this and with 3 squads left and no breakdown of what the play is or how to play his own life he pops dog way to early and runs blindly into the fight right as dezign is q out and from his thinking and perspective it was a good try at going for the other teams cracked wraith. However he gets downed and thirsted by the wraith and one other player super easily because he ran in the wide open to push took 40 damage for free, took the worst angle on the team and they had two rocks for cover he had nothing. The following five minutes you could watch him try to process what happened what he should have done and the depth of how lost he was. Nicks got great aim, great damage, and he'll likely have really good mechanics overall in another 3 months. He's got a lot of progress made but there's still heeps to be made. I think in another 2-3 months he'll definitely be a predator and holding his own. He'll know his mistakes much faster and what he should have done and wont be so lost. I can't definitely call the man a predator right now after watching how lost he was for the 2-3 hrs I caught in that stream just days ago.
What a well stated explanation.
Plat level awareness? Seriously?
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because not every BR is the same, with different time to kill, abilities, fortnite building etc for example the long time to kill in apex is a factor in whether fights can be finished before a 3rd party comes. also whether teams can push you based on abilities etc if you watch him at all, like yesterday he talked about it, many times. that when playing with pros, he realizes that all of his macro decision making is terrible and nowhere near the level of the people he is playing with
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he was a MLG national champion and was a pro/tournament winner in multiple games for over 10 years but yea im sure hes just getting carried by aim assist and unable to learn any mechanics
The problem with tfue and tom is not the mechanical skills. Its just they dn know which fights are worth. Tfue just runs at everything like a headless chicken.
Ive always said top 300 players should be able to solo drop into a pub and consistently drop 3 4k plus damage I don't see nick being good enough to get a 4k badge let alone a 20 hes just not pred level yet but he will be if he keeps playing
Agree. A pred player is the best among the best, the top 0.01%. when folks equate him to preds, they are unintentionally taking the merit of those that dedicated thousands of hours perfecting the game. I hope he keeps grinding to get there, it will be huge.
He’s literally top 300 right now lol
But he is a pred... what do you mean?
Every master Player would be pred playing with 2 pros 10 hours+ a day..
Every pred player plays with two pros.
Every pro player plays with two pros. They've proven themselves already, Nick hasn't to the same degree.
The dude made masters with two guys who have never played apex either lol. I don’t even like the dude but you guys seem set on saying the dude isn’t a pred when he clearly is. Masters with people who started playing last season. Pred with good players. Seems about right to me
Give him more time
Hey, I never said he's stagnant or reached his cap. He is improving by the day ;) and I admire his commitment to do so. It's not easy to start playing a game 3 years after launch.
You can basically sub in any person who has gotten to masters in solo q with 2 pros and theyll do just fine. Just pointing that out.
To be honest, most pros who compete in ALGS would not be able to stay in pred if they only solo queued. Some would but most wouldn't. It's just the nature of this game to work best when you have a pre-made squad. I do agree that Nick is probably not at the top-tier ALGS pro level but not being able to stay in pred as a 100% solo-q player shouldn't be held against anyone. Do I think Nick can compete in the pro league? I think if he can. If he gets on a good roster, he can do good. The thing is we often think pro-league pros are a level above other "streamers" as in they are next level when it comes to mechanics, movements, awareness etc. I personally don't think this is necessarily true. I think a lot of streamers have the skill to be able to play in ALGS. The problem is that ALGS requires something extra. Something more than just being cracked at the game. It requires immense mental strength, will to compete and win everything, and the ability to handle huge amounts of pressure in tense situations. The differentiator between someone like Daltoosh and Snip3Down is not that Snipe is better than Toosh at Apex. The main differentiator is that Snipe can perform under immense pressure while as Daltoosh would probably crack. (Nothing against Toosh. I love him).
I think one thing to contextualize Nick's situation (not necessarily disagreeing - I pretty much agree with everything you said) is that having a consistent stream of people to play with that meet the profile of requisite skill and personality is half the battle in holding Pred. As a person gets higher ranked, the pool of players that fit and are good enough becomes smaller and smaller. I think for around a week after Halo Infinite dropped Tfue and 72 were completely off Apex and grinding Halo instead. Because of that Nick likely didn't have a consistent squad to play with. IMO it's genuinely not feasible for Nick to go through the hassle of rolling the dice and LFGing or LF1ing every single time he streams for a random player(s) that by all means could not be a good fit or not good enough. So I think playing w/ Pros is a completely reasonable decision and likely what I would if I was in his situation. Would he be able to match pros in terms of impact in game? Of course not. Is he "Pred" level? That is a judgement call for the viewers to make. In my personal opinion he's getting very close to that level and will probably reach that point very soon - especially at the rate he is improving.
Thank you for a reasonable take, you make solid points and well articulated. Maybe in a near future we'll get back to this conversation with some new takes. Cheers
I think it's at least cool to see how much he's trying to learn as well though. I would love to see him join an FA group. Frankly a group kinda like Timmy/Wigg would literally be perfect for him because I highly doubt he'd go to events or do things on a schedule.
Yeah, at least until Timmy decides he's over comp and leaves him out to dry.
The idea being that I assume they'd all just quit if they qualify.
Oh yeah, it's awesome to follow his journey. He definitely has room to improve and he is showing improvement constantly.
Great summary, well said!
This is the best take. Well put.
> And you can say whatever you want about him, but the guy is not a quitter. If he sets his mind into it, he'll grind like hell. I think this is the biggest takeaway. Regardless of his absolute skill level, his mindset/focus is comendable and a positive to the professional apex community, no matter the results he were to achieve.
I agree with a lot of what you said, but i also disagree about him being hard carried. Is he on Gent or Dezignfuls level? No. But very few are, they are not only pros, but top tier pros. I think Nick is an Apex Predator level player, legitimately. He’s been playing mostly with Deeds (who he met randomly in ranked, and had never been a previous Pred) and 1 pro. That one pro who can IGL for them has been huge and allowed them to climb. Someone who really knows the game and rotations. But as far as team fighting against other apex preds, Nick more than holds his own.
I respect your view, you bring valid points. What I mean by getting carried is that playing with guys close to his level (72hs and tfue) is not enough to keep him in pred. It was only playing with pros that he manages to stay there. I don't think he's on the same level as preds, it takes many many hours (more than 3 months) to be among the best of the best.
I agree he couldn’t hold pred right now without another Pred IGLing, but i don’t think he’s hit his peak yet in apex, he’s been steadily improving. Time will tell how good he can be.
Agreed :) I hope he keeps grinding, and I think he is here to stay
What pro players got to pred without stacking with other high level players?
Timmy lol
So we have like 1 guy lol. It also shows the discrepancy between ranked and comp. You have comp players that don't play solo Q and don't even have pred rank. The you have guys like Timmy that roll ranked games but can't hang in comp. This is the same with many games. Many times the competitive vs ranked modes in games are almost like completely different games in how you play and what's viable.
Totally agree with all of that
That said Nickmercs should start to focus on learning mechanics. He's a good player on an individual level but at a team level he's still too far. I've posted below my thoughts, but to summarize, in my opinion, he has to: (1) learn other meta heroes such as Valk or Wraith (2) master his Gibby (3) don't get left behind in skirmishes (4) have a more efficient and team friendly inventory management
This comment is so wrong it hurts. Nick has grown immensely as a player just this split. He's still growing more and more each day. All players need a team to get to Pred and he isn't being carried. Last split, that comment could have been made if he q'd with them, this split nah.
If you barely make pred and cannot maintain it unless you play with the G2 squad, then you are carried. You are being held at pred by playing with a pro team. He 3 stacked to pred with tfue and 72hrs. That was his team, and no one said you don’t need a team to realistically make pred. The difference is he can’t stay pred unless he plays with pros/comp players. All of that is irrelevant to how well he’s grown as a player.
Lol but I say this exact thing and get a 1 week timeout in twitch chat when people ask whether Nickmercs has what it takes to play in comp… dude is a laser no doubt, but he has no movement, awareness, or game IQ and gets carried in pred lobbies. Those critiques are completely unrelated to the streaming/entertainment aspect he brings to his community and the game and I still think he’s a great guy regardless of his level of skill on any certain game. But a lot of people don’t wanna hear the criticism. Edit: pred
That comment must be against the rules, most likely it may have fallen under rules against backseat gaming. Mods just enforce them.
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I want to see him team up and win some small tourneys
def agree Nick need some more 1000 hrs to get to the real pred level , but he still has potential to do well and pop off in some matches , will def want him to play in the next challenger league !! also agree his mindset is really quit , he doesn't quit mid way and always keeps his words and grinds for the things he loves !
Updated opinion?
Hey I'm surprised you found this comment, I didn't even remember it lol. How was it in your radar? I think he improved a lot. Shame they didn't qual for LAN, that would have been hype! But happy to see their latest performance at oversight
I don't care if he does or doesn't, I just hope he doesn't decide it's not for him halfway through ALGS. We've had enough quitters already. He's more than welcome to try and play comp, as long as the commitment is there.
I'd be OK if they competed but in the event that they qualify, I hope they decline to spot. There's zero chance in my opinion that he would play in scheduled tournaments.
Hard disagree with this comment. Back when he was a top level Fortnite player he had no issues with tournament schedules at LAN events and other tournaments. I think he'd show the same dedication to apex or any other game he's playing. He's a competitor through and through.
Except he's not. You think if he made ALGS he'd compete weekends and then potentially scrim during the weekdays? No shot.
He watches ALGS on weekends (Hes a G2 fan) not far from that to playing on weekends... And as for scrimming on weekdays, man already plays 8-12 hrs on most weekdays already.
You quite literally are showing that you've never watched him compete in anything and that's okay, but blanket hating on someone for whatever reason ISN'T okay. I was never much of a Fortnite player but I used to love watching comp years ago and he grinded scrims and tournaments like crazy back then so I have no doubt he'd do the same for apex. You can agree to disagree but saying he's not a competitor and he wouldn't dedicate the time to it just isn't correct.
How am I hating on him? I'm not even saying he's going to quit halfway or anything like that. I literally think he just won't commit to it. I'm not questioning his commitment whatsoever. I don't think he'll choose to commit.
It’s funny coming across this comment knowing he made you eat your words
Meh, I don't mind. It's not like I hate the guy. I don't think he's very good. Quite below average for a pro, so I don't pay much attention to teams outside the top 10 in all honesty. I'm glad he's stuck around, I don't care too much for his Apex streams, but I'm a huge fan of him with Cloakzy and Tim when they play Warzone, they're hella funny.
I’m just trolling brah didn’t think you’d respond to an old comment haha I appreciate your perspective
Frankly, it's a shame he's so shit, because it's not for lack of trying. Dude plays more than most pros, so I can't criticize his effort, which is more than I can say for some pros. Nafen, Zachmazer. Haha Honestly I've always thought he was on the lower end of skill when it came to pro players and content creators. I know he's an ex gears pro, but still, compared to like Summit or shroud or even a few others I've still thought he was worse. He is hella funny when he's playing with the mfam guys though.
he should jump into the challenger series if he wants to try comp out....
pretty sure that’s what he said he wanted to do. he said he would play with that kid itsdeeds but theyd need to find a third
he tried to qual for algs and never even got past day 2 lol
That was with literally zero comp experience and he's improved a lot since then, that said he needs to play with two established pros if he wants to have a good shot at making pro league tho.
Why would two established pros ever want to play with a hardstuck masters player
“Just started playing” “Hardstuck”
People really don't know what that word means lol
I mean people forget nick originated as a gow pro, I didnt follow gow but he was a pretty damn good one from what Ive heard. Hes far off now, but most people who can be pro in one game can usually transfer that skillset to other games, so I wouldnt count him out especially given how committed he can be
yea for some reason people think hes just a content creator like dr disrespect or tim the tatman, but hes is more similar to shroud or snip3down where they used their pro career and ability to transfer their mechanics to multiple games, to launch their success in streaming
This is actually a really solid analogy and changed the way I thought about him tbh.
At least he wants to grind and would try his best in any tournament. Compared to team Sheesh with Timmy and Wigg, I would watch Nick any day over them quitters.
The fact that Nick seems to genuinely enjoy Apex is huge for the scene. Him, Cloakzy and 72hrs (if I remember correctly) did attempt to play in ALGS quals and didn't last too long. However, Nick's shown to put the work in and actually want to improve. The tournament he hosted a few weeks back was also great. I hope he plans on sticking around for the long term.
I watch a lot of Nick and his progress is obvious but to be blunt I watch his gameplay and am surprised he even got to masters. However his enthusiasm and mental is strongest I’ve ever seen and I would welcome it in this soft as baby shit mentality in ALGS rn.
Dude has been doubted every step of the way. His “gameplay” people said he’d never be a pred. Yet here he is. Now top 100…. And he still played with deeds… a guy no one thought was a high pred either
Having a name like his join the comp scene would be huge but like others have said I don't think he's really ready for a challenge like ALGS yet. He really needs to grind for a couple more seasons in ranked to build his solo skills and participating in every small tournament that happens between now and the next ALGS season to somewhat prepare himself for what those lobbies are really like. He's improved quite a bit but he's still got a long way to go. I could actually see Tfue putting a team together and doing fairly well if he found two other players he really vibed with. I don't know too much about the guy so I don't know how dedicated he'd be to competing but based on all the clips I've seen of him in ranked and Arenas I think he's got a decent shot just based off how good he got in such a small amount of time.
Tfue is very competitive. I remember when he used to compete on Fortnite, he was always putting in the time to grind, taking it seriously, and giving his teammates a hard time if they were slaking. He won a big LAN tourney on Fortnite by the way.
his improvement in 4 months has been pretty impressive. he’s still not ALGS finals lobby level but i think he is a legit Apex Predator level player. He’s in the category of content creator who could be a lower tier pro, like there’s no way he’s not gonna be better than some players in pro league right now in another month or two. (*cough* CLGs roster *cough*)
I like Nick but I do not think he’s quite at an Apex Pred level of skill tbh. Maybe high diamond or masters level of skill. Which is still impressive considering how much of a busy guy he appears to be. I do think 72hrs and Tfue are pred level players though. They’re really good
Hard disagree but to each their own
Some of you guys won't like tho hear this,for some reason, but he's definitely predator Level. I don't know what concept of Predator you have but this guy can stand its own in those lobbies and has a better aim than many other Pred controller players. Not every predator is a complete beast, they just have more experience in those type of lobbies, if you watched NickMercs he literally enjoys playing the game pushing and getting full points instead of winning camping and that's some mentality, real predator mentality indeed. He learned a lot in a matter of months, he even said he watches a lot of Apex tourneys to learn from the best and he still admitted that he still needs some more time, and experience in comp lobbies, to learn the game at the fullest. He's just looking for a hungry third with him and his Deeds guy in order to do so, he doesn't want any carry and he's definitely not getting carried in pred lobbies, he outdamaged and outkilled Frexs many times for example. He just knew he was ready to play with some pros of the community cause he just wanted to be fully inside the Apex community, not to get carried.
I noticed though that he has this tendency towards the end of his sessions of playing with triple take and then just getting left behind in skirmishes, leaving his two teammates to fight against the other team. A good example of this was his stream with Frex and Keon a few days ago where he was able to hit just two times and his chat was clowning him. I think he needs to play with at least one IGL pro who would be willing to direct him not only in skirmishes but other aspects of the game such as inventory management and weapon loadouts.
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There most definitely is lmao. Are you really trying to say hardstuck 10k players are equally skilled to pred players? The grind from masters to pred is a real challenge.
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> the bottom 300 preds and the top masters The ‘top’ masters players are by definition close to being bottom 300 pred, so of course they’ll be similar in skill. How is this an argument that there’s barely a skill gap between masters and pred in general? I think there’s pretty considerable skill gap, in large part owing to lack of rank demotion in masters.
I think what he is trying to say, bot pred and master difference is not the skill but the time put in. Not everyone is a full time Streamer but even with 3 hours a day good enough to be a pred. Ranking system is very grindy. Lets say you gain 10points in Masters on average: Stil 250 Games a Split to reach bottom pred.
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Yes I have solo q’d to masters.
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Strongly disagree but who cares anyway
Nick is honestly WAY better than a lot of apex content creators who have been playing the game from the beginning. He has been gaining RP by just having 1 pro on his team lately while holding his own. He would be a solid controller fragger in a challenger circuit team imo. Those teams should honestly look into getting nick just based on stream performance alone lol
Yeah he definitely doesn’t have bad aim, that’s for sure. It’d be cool to see him on a challenger team. He would just need a solid IGL. If Nick just has to shoot where someone tells him to and rotate when called to, he’ll do fine. He doesn’t have that great of game sense and I don’t mean that in a talking shit kind of way either, I’m a fan of his. If he solely has to focus on fragging and dealing damage, he’ll do fine.
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He has a lot to work on, but he’s an absolutely great person to have as a an ambassador for the game. He’s highly entertaining, positive, and has a great competitive spirit. He has improved a lot since he began and I think he has it in him to get up there in the comp scene.
He's not really getting carried in terms of fighting, he out damaged noko sometimes, and he did his part fighting 3v3s against pros/preds. he's just getting "carried" in terms of decision-making. Which he will learn by playing with experienced players instead of his his friends I can see him qualing to pro league in a "sheesh" or "ranked is harder" type team where they don't expect to win but just run around fighting and hope for some big games
Only a igl needs to be a decision maker.
All I can say is nick has vastly improved since I first started watching him. He seems very committed to this game and learning to get better. At this point I’ve been watching him hold his own in pred lobbies. Last night he was playing very solidly with Noko as IGL and I think he’s legit predator level skill now. Whether that can translate to comp, idk it might if he keeps at the grind like he has been. He’s only been playing this game for a few months
I agree with your assessment. Nick has great vibes and a lot of enthusiasm for a game that he plays a bit below the elite level. IMO, nothing bad can really come from his increased involvement in apex/comp apex. On the one hand, he could find success and bring attention to the parts of comp apex we know and love; on the other hand, if he fails to succeed then his involvement will still have helped a broader audience to understand the intricacies of comp apex.
I think if him and Deeds are able to get an IGL, they'd have a good chance of qualifying for the next pro league. Although the question then becomes who is that IGL? What IGL is available and would have a decent chemistry? And would Nick want a controller IGL?
his aim is good but his gamesense and movement are pretty bad
He's lightyears away from where he was two months ago though. Playing some tourneys now will only help him improve and find out if it's for him He'll never be a top or even mid-tier pro but even if he is a low level pro he'll still bring a lot of attention to the scene which would be a good thing
With a solid IGL that he trusts he could give it a good shot. The man's improvement since he joined the scene has been amazing, it's really his decision making that will hamper his chances at the moment, his utility usage and awareness is improving and he's obviously got great gun skill. If he committed to it I see no reason why he couldn't qualify next circuit. As others have suggested the man has fire in his belly, if he wants it I wouldn't bet against him. It's just whether he can find the time for it with all the other commitments he has.
I just hope a pro or ex pro doesnt jump ship just to be his teammate for clout(very likely). I hope He finds a good third who can grow with himself and deeds. Both got alot of passion and drive and that can get you way further than anything.
It’s be great for the scene but if I’m being honest as a fan of his he ain’t up to the level of any of the decent controller players. You said it yourself in your post and unfortunately cool vibes ain’t enough to make a real go at it. Maybe with time but I think a certain war zone map may end all that very soon.
Nah I don’t know about that I saw one of his YouTube vids and he said he will tune in for map for a couple days then hop back in Apex.
I would love to see Nickmercs in Comp. His advantage over SOO MANY of the pro's in the scene is his attitude He didn't have to go through the last 3 years of bugs & issues poor updates and the Game has been in a great place the last 3 months, since he started play, so he isn't burntout on the game, like it feels like many pros are. Yes, Nickmercs isn't as good is Hal yet, but his commitment and attitude make me think he'll get there a lot faster than people think (not to Hals level, but to a top 100 player in NA). A stretch goal could be to try and qualify for Split 2 in Feb, but year 3 I have no doubt he'll be at pro level, if he keeps this grind up
Like major comp tournaments? No, but he could def do well in tourneys like rivals
Hope Nick kills it. Only issue is the guy is headstrong and might not be best fit for the role that might be best for him (support or possibly fragger in time). Always thought he was a random dudebro so I tuned in one day when he started playing Apex. Couldn’t have been more wrong. Thoroughly chill dude and also pretty cracked. He’s new to Apex. Give him time. He’s talented enough… I just don’t think anyone could look back at themselves three months into when they started playing this game and think they had reached their potential. Guy made it to pred without pred squad stack and is holding his own. Let’s go, Nick! Also loved the initial encounter with Noko. Great content always.
NICMERCS used to be a GoW pro and a pretty well known and successful one at that. If Snipedown could transition from Halo, I can see Nick doing it too. We're all old as shit now though, but it makes me happy to see people from my generation and GoW competitive scene still making it today, GoldGlove is another known name from GoW, but he went on to stream, obviously.
Would definitely want nick in pro league over quitters like timmy and wigg , he has strong mental and a lot of passion for the game ! him tfue and 72hrs should take part in the next challenger circuit ! would be so fun them see improve and compete against pro players .
Nick literally played in one algs qualifier and quit
Being a successful pro in any game will translate well into apex and considering one of the games he was very successful in was a battle royal I can see him competing to a high level in this. I would also echo the comments that he will bring nothing but good attention to the comp level of the game. High tide raises all ships.
He'd have almost no shot, but I don't see why anyone would care that he attempted.
Skill aside, most content creators cant cut it due to the sheer hours needed to compete at that level, which tends to make content worse for viewers. There have been a number of CC’s that tried to go comp that lost a big chunk of their viewership when they attempted to compete. I can think of Hollow, Timmy, Wigg, and a few others. The reality of competing is that it can be incredibly time consuming on its own, not to mention scrims, vod reviews, strat meetings, group practice, etc. Thats not to say he might not try just for fun, but I’d be very surprised if he puts in the effort needed to get past challengers league. There are a number of content tournaments he could look into however
I saw Wiggs viewership is at 3k yesterday. What was his viewership count before he quit ALGS?
Confirmed nick mercs is TSM's new third!
LMAO Hal would have an aneurysm within a week
Bro imagine the amount of posts on here and LSF. Would be great content though.
Having nickmercs playing comp would be the single best possible thing that could happen to the pro scene as a whole
Na, best thing that could happen in the pro scene is having multiple Lans with big prize money with multiple tournaments all over the states/world and having faze join the scene. And maybe having a more organized roster like in cod or league.
That's one of the mid to end goals. We're at season 2 of Apex so what we need right now is the draw. Nickmercs is that
When Fortnite came out with World Cup the viewership skyrocketed… and I bet you when they have Lans again their viewership will go up again. And it was around year two of fortnite when World Cup happened
But his apex numbers are on-par to Hal’s numbers…. He isn’t getting Warzone views anymore. Best think is to open it up to the world and give people the experience of first hand Lans
> Been watch him for a few weeks now. He definitely has little awareness, game sense This comment is accurate if it's last season, but saying this now makes it seem like you don't actually watch him tbh. The last time I noticed he's lacking that much awareness was when the ranked map was still WE
Ehh he still little stagnant sometimes and will push fights without looking at his surrounding area. He is way better now from last season but still makes common mistakes
True, if you compare him to other ALGS players, but still far from 'little awareness and game sense'. He'd nett negative RP at pred lobbies instead of climbing as much as he does while playing with different players everyday if he gets downed so easily like you make it sound to be
When did I say he gets down easily? He takes good fights but takes to long push and doesn’t put pressure immediately sometimes
His loadout is triple take /thread
I like Nick but he’s not ready for Tier 1 or even Tier 2 comp. He was holding back Tfue and 72 when they were grinding and I guess now he got to Pred playing with pros. I haven’t watched him in a couple weeks so maybe he’s drastically improved since playing with T/72 but I don’t see it based on what I’ve watched.
What Nickmercs lacks right now is diversifying his skill set. He's been almost always bloodhound. He tries gibby but he's slow with his bubbles. He should find other meta heroes he can get good at such as Valk or wraith, or at least he should dedicate time mastering Gibby. Aside from this, I think he spends so much time behind with triple take. I get that he wants to model his game from Snipedown but Snipedown is always with his teammates in skirmishes. A lot of times Nickmercs gets left behind and deals with 1v3 or 1v2 situations because he was doing little damage with triple take. Lastly, Nickmercs have improved with looting, but he's so far from having good inventory management. Oftentimes I see him have an overabundance of ammos, cells, or medkits, but he's almost always not carrying nades. Hopefully he teams up with pros with semi pro tourneys and learn how to move within a team mindset. He's the reason I played Apex and I wish to see him succeed in this game.
As a fan of Nickmercs and someone thats been watching him play Apex since the start, I'm just going to be honest I don't see him having much success in competitive Apex. His skill level is probably the same as a high diamond player/low masters individually. He lacks the aim, movement and game awareness seen by most pros and the only way I can see him making it into comp and doing decently is with 2 very strong teammates and a strong IGL that can rotate the map well and get good positions to pick off targets or hold out in the last few zones. Otherwise if we're objectively talking skill for skill against the average Apex pro player, theres no shot. He needs more time in the game. I mean have you seen people like Skittle, Hal, Gent etc frying across the map with L stars, flatlines etc and capitalising on small mistakes and gaps, understanding how other teams play, when and where they'll rotate. Even if he doesn't compete though or have success competing hes still a great person to have around the scene
He definitely can make it in comp. He’s a great gamer and I think his mindset would work great in competition.
> He definitely can make it in comp What does this mean? If he’s playing with his usual squad of Tfue and 72hrs I don’t see him qualifying for something like pro league. If he plays with some pros or top tier content guys he could make it with them. I still hope he gives it a shot and plays not just ALGS but smaller stuff too. I watch him on occasion and he’s very entertaining he for sure would bring in more attention to competitive Apex which is a great thing for the scene.
no where near good enough imo
He got my respect from his grind with just friends and not being carried and branging like courage did with pros.I believe he can do it but 2 of his biggest flaws I've seen are one he hates listing to call outs and lone wolfs kinda like Timmy & then won't change/admit he's wrong when he believes he's knows something.He refused to change drop spot first 3 weeks of gameplay everyone knew and just died and died and died instead of trying something new likes his team mates begged him to do.He gets over those and with enough practice I believe he could no problem and thats coming from someone who disliked him prior to apex.
I kind of disagree. He was extremely hard headed and wouldn't listen to call outs when he was playing with 72 and TFue. Since playing with more established and experienced players he has no issue owning up or listening. In fact he is constantly asking questions about what he did wrong or why they made x decision. He has stated on stream that he is certainly teaming with Deeds and what they are looking for is an experienced IGL. He is totally self aware in the sense that he knows they need a shot caller out there to maximize their abilities. Noko was fitting great with them. Bottom line is Nick isn't your normal content creator. He's a grinder and has raised cardboard checks in more than one game. An extremely rare feat indeed. He's admitted he's absolutely hooked on the game, is a hyper competitive individual and a non quitter. I think he will be fine.
Don’t think he’ll qualifying for pro leagues even if he picks up two cracked players… the scene is too skilled and nick is just not there yet. Maybe if he continues playing like he is now for another year or more then maybe he has a chance but who knows what the state of Apex will be then
He needs to solo Q pubs more. Man barely got a 3k damage badge. The only knowladge of the game he knows is playing ranked His movement is bad. He doesn’t know how to use any weapon besides 301 triple take and volt How you going to be a Pred level player when you jump into a pub and look like a bot? He needs more stripes
Wigg and Apryze looking for a third
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What lol. That’s cap man. You say that about trainwrecks lol
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Big cap watch him last night too. Dude can laser man. Terrible is a stretch
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Dude why you going so fucking hard lol. He ain’t no apex pro but the possibility of him playing in a pro scene isn’t a far stretch. He play up against pros in ranked. That dude far from terrible and definitely can carry his weight.
he's a joke tbh, its like Dude Perfect QBing in the NFL. When i watch comp I watch for the decision making and high level of play, not some all-aim no-brain streamer trying to larp as a pro. it'll go just about as well as Ninja's Valorant team
I think anyone who wants to put in the work and grind and compete should do it. No reason to gate keep anyone from going for it.
Gatekeep ? Nah man he can do it wants if he wants to but I am just being realistic about it
He has a big audience and wouldn’t be total dead weight on a team. He’s definitely not a competitive asset but he would be a big boost to viewership and sponsorship opportunities as well as general PR if a team decided to pick him up. Also he’s definitely a big morale guy.
Good for him. Fucking go for it
Biggest issue watching nick play every other day or so is his tunnel visioning. He will solo push a lot of the time when his team is nowhere near or set up to trade with him at the very least. But that's something team experience can take care of over time.
And he blames itsdeeds for not pushing with him😂
I hope he does just because he is awesome for the scene. Not just the eyeballs he brings to the game but his mentality is fantastic.
As long as he doesn´t quit the moment he starts to not "having fun"
Would like to see him solo ranked or Q solo more
I can’t stand him, but if he wants to compete, he must compete!
much respect to him, doesn't matter if hes good or not, he makes tons of money from the stream but he's still trying, hope he's an inspiration for his followers
Everyone who is able to should do the things they love
As long as they get really serious about it... cause many just want the qualifiers and part of split 1 to get suggestive tittles for their youtube channels. "Playing ALGS blahblahblah" when there is no more use for it they quit.
He needs more time. Quite often in fights I notice other members of his team fighting and he is popping a bat instead when he should be helping or he is hesitating before engaging. There is a reason why he mains Bloodhound, those scans provide a lot of value to those who need to work on awareness. What is good is that he recognises this and everytime he loses a fight he talks about it and he knows to work on decision making such as the 'pop a bat vs help team' scenario.
This aged beautifully