Storm Point arrived as Apex Legends' biggest map, and in 2026 the scale still fuels one of the battle royale's most practical design debates. After a week of nonstop action across its wildlife-filled climates, the conclusion was hard to miss: the map might be too big. Nobody wants another Kings Canyon, where a compact layout can create more third parties than Fuse has grenades. Yet Respawn does not need to remake World's Edge or Olympus with new textures. The issue is less about total size and more about how the opening minute distributes twenty teams.

A big map is not automatically a bad map. Storm Point has choke points to slide through, and Gravity Cannons let squads reposition quickly without spending the whole match running from the ring or from Prowlers. Those tools help once a match is moving. The awkward part is the drop. With one dropship, some areas are simply inaccessible from certain flight paths. If the ship crosses the southern half of Storm Point, teams cannot reach POIs such as North Pad, Highpoint, or Lightning Rod. There is enough space elsewhere for all twenty teams, but the most popular landing spots can still feel crowded.

Hot dropping can be fun in public matches. In ranked, it is usually not the best route to climbing, because contesting a POI early is practically a 50/50 no matter how skilled a squad is. A second dropship covering the other half of the map would spread teams more evenly at the start. It would solve the scramble for the best loot at the most popular places, and it would give more squads a real choice instead of a forced detour.

The Popular-Spot Problem

Every map has popular drop spots, usually somewhere central with plenty of loot. Kings Canyon had Skull Town, World's Edge has Fragment East, and Storm Point has Barometer and Antenna. Those places concentrate action, which can be exciting, but concentration also means congestion. A second dropship arriving from the opposite direction could split the lobby. Initial fights would be more winnable, there would be fewer third parties, and contesting a spot in ranked might not be the death wish it once was.

Picture the effect in concrete terms. If half the lobby drops early at Antenna and the other half arrives from the opposite side, perhaps dropping early at The Mill, fights are broken up and more teams may survive to the final circle. Players have seen World's Edge ranked matches drop to ten teams before round one even begins because half the lobby died in Fragment. Another dropship could help prevent that outcome and create more exciting endgames across all Apex Legends maps.

🪂 The core argument is simple: one ship creates artificial scarcity. Two ships create healthier choices.

The Esports Angle

The case becomes even stronger if Storm Point is ever included in Apex Legends esports. Teams competing in the Apex Legends Global Series arrange which POIs they will land at before a tournament, so everyone can loot thoroughly before taking a fight. Contesting a POI in a tournament is nearly always bad news for both parties. But what happens if a team cannot reach its chosen spot from the dropship? Does it land in an unnamed location with mediocre loot, or contest another team for a chance at a decent gun?

That matters because the battle royale esports scene, and Apex Legends in particular, has heard plenty of complaints that RNG plays too large a role in tournament results. Adding another random element that can deny teams their preferred landing spot is asking for trouble. There is no guarantee Storm Point will become a competitive map, but it seems to have been designed with competition in mind. After all, Rodney Reece designed it, and he also designed the only map to feature in the ALGS at the time of that discussion, World's Edge.

Simple Fixes, One Clear Winner

Players have made numerous suggestions to help dropping into the bigger map. Some have proposed raising the height of the dropship. Others have suggested set routes for it to follow. Both ideas have merit, but neither solves the full problem as cleanly as a second ship.

Proposed fix	Strength	Limitation
Second dropship	Reaches every POI and splits the lobby	Adds another moving part to match starts
Higher dropship	More glide range	Longer, more vulnerable descent
Fixed routes	Predictable access	Less freedom and less variety

A second dropship solves two problems at once. It lets players reach every POI, and it eases the congestion that is synonymous with the most popular spots. In 2026, as battle royale maps grow larger and lobbies grow more optimized, Storm Point remains a useful case study. Its size is both an asset and a warning. The map offers room for rotations, choke points, and Gravity Cannon plays, but the opening drop still shapes the entire match. Two dropships would not fix every Apex Legends issue. They would, however, make the first minute fairer, the ranked ladder less random, and the final circles more interesting. For a map this big, that seems like a small change with a very large payoff.",

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