There were once three guarantees in life: death, taxes, and 20 Wraiths in every lobby of a competitive Apex Legends match. However, recent data from Apex Legends Global Series tournaments suggests that Wraith’s time in the spotlight may be over, and it’s relative new girl Valkyrie who is stealing the show.

Wraith has a great kit: the ability to disappear from the battlefield to avoid damage combined with a portal to transport yourself and your allies across the map make her the perfect scout and a great movement character for precise peeks and rapid rotations. She also has the smallest hitbox in the game, which helps with fragging and could give Wraith mains the edge in bubble fights.

Related: Apex Legends' New Map Makes A Strong Case For Two Dropships

So what went wrong? Well, nothing really. Sure, her hitbox was updated to be slightly larger when running, and her abilities were nerfed slightly, but she’s still in a good place. She’s the third most-used character in Apex Legends ranked matches, and will probably return to second place once people get bored of new girl Ash. 11 percent of players pick Wraith in ranked matches, compared with 6.7 percent who pick Valkyrie. But head over to days five and six of the ALGS and it’s a different story. According to Apex Legends analyst SinghLabs, 57 percent of teams in North America had a Valk on board, compared with only 30 percent picking Wraith.

Rise Of The Valkyrie: How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports
Rise Of The Valkyrie: How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports

Valkyrie’s jet pack offers unique capabilities, the most important of which in esports tournaments is her Skyward Dive. This lets teams reposition themselves quickly and relatively safely, which is perfect for getting out of a sticky situation or simply making your way into zone quickly. When she’s in the air, her HUD also highlights opponents who are in her line of sight, while her rockets are handy for identifying exactly where an opponent is hiding and therefore the optimal angle to throw your best grenade.

Both lag behind esports staple Gibraltar, but Wraith is only just clinging onto her place as a top five Legend in NA competition. Valkyrie, on the other hand, is being used as much as ever. As you can see in the below graph, however, Wraith’s decline began way before Valkyrie was added to the game. Few characters can say they were at 100 percent pick rate in Apex Legends esports, but Wraith held that title for months. Her decline was rapid, and didn’t coincide with a nerf aside from a few bug fixes.

Rise Of The Valkyrie: How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports
Graph courtesy of SinghLabs
Rise Of The Valkyrie: How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports

What her drop off did coincide with, however, was the Octane Jump Pad change in Season 8. Although this was pre-Revtane, this pad update gave Octane more utility as a movement Legend for the whole squad, and Apex pros jumped on the chance to use him (pun very much intended). This also coincided with Wraith’s hitbox being embiggened, and was a recipe for disaster for our interdimensional skirmisher.

But Octane didn’t reach the levels that Wraith had once hit. Sure, he briefly overtook her in the runup to the inaugural ALGS Championship, but Valk’s addition to the game at around the same time further split the play between three viable movement characters. Before Season 8, Wraith had been the only movement option during the ALGS period (Pathfinder was over-nerfed in the pre-ALGS days). Now there were three choices and Valkyrie rose to the top of the pile, immediately eating into the number of Octane players.

Rise Of The Valkyrie: How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports
Graph courtesy of SinghLabs
Rise Of The Valkyrie: How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports

There are still a fair few Wraith apologists in competitive Apex Legends, however - as of days seven and eight of ALGS Split 1, the EMEA region continues to run her in 58 percent of squads. However, only 0.4 percent of EMEA teams used Octane in the same tournament - one measly pick. In NA, 38 percent of squads carried Wraith and 3.5 percent used Octane. If you want movement, then it seems the verdict is still out on whether you’re best using portals or pads. The addition of Ash, another portal Legend, has split the picks even further (she was used by nine percent of EMEA and 27 percent of NA squads). Wraith, who once held complete control and was used by every squad without fail, is fluctuating wildly.

Valkyrie offers something completely different. Her rotations are safer, can take you further, and offer a slice of intel as you progress - neither Wraith, Octane, nor Ash have that in their locker. Plus, she synergises better with other meta characters. Gibraltar’s Dome Shield can provide a safe take-off or landing when using Valk’s Ultimate Ability, and pairing her with Caustic can be an effective strategy for fortifying a well-positioned building in the early stages of a game.

Rise Of The Valkyrie How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports
Rise Of The Valkyrie How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports

However, there’s one piece of information that changes the debate slightly: the most used composition in the most recent ALGS matches was Gibraltar, Valkyrie and Wraith. This combo was the choice for 27 percent of NA squads and 32 percent in EMEA, far ahead of the next most-picked composition, which switched Wraith for Caustic. So if Wraith’s decline correlated more with a hitbox change, Octane buff, and Ash addition than the introduction of Valkyrie, who has she replaced?

The answer is poor old Bloodhound. The technological tracker has plummeted in use, especially in EMEA. In the most recent rounds, just five percent of teams picked them in EMEA and, despite a stronger showing in NA with 30 percent picking them up, their decline correlates exactly with Valkyrie’s near-vertical ascent. It’s also worth noting that, despite increasing a lot as Wraith was nerfed, Octane’s usage also decreased with Valkyrie’s introduction, and again when Ash entered the game.

Rise Of The Valkyrie: How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports
Graph courtesy of SinghLabs
Rise Of The Valkyrie: How Valk Usurped Wraith As The Queen Of Apex Legends Esports

Valkyrie’s rise to the top - barring the immovable Gibby, of course - correlated with rapid declines of the use of both Bloodhound and Octane, which shows how her design manages to capture the best of both characters. Few think she’s overpowered - for once, she launched as a well-balanced Legend - but the number of roles she can fill has led to Valk being picked more than Wraith, despite not directly replacing her and often appearing alongside her. It goes to show the intricacies of Apex Legends esports are far more complex than they might seem on the surface - and that’s before you leave the character selection screen.

The future is bright for Valkyrie, as Storm Point was designed with competition in mind and many are expecting it to be introduced into esports tournaments as early as Split 2 of this year’s ALGS. The vast map makes the case for double dropships, but even then teams will practically need a Valkyrie just to get into the circle. Valk is the new queen of Apex esports, and we expect her to keep the crown for a long time yet.

Next: Sejun Park’s Six-Pachirisu Squad Proves Pokemon Fans Make Their Own Difficulty