Apex pro shows mercy on disconnected player during $2M championship tournament

Philiip "ImperialHal" Dosen
(Image credit: Electronic Arts)

Apex Legends pro Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen is earning praise for his performance this weekend at the $2 million Apex Legends Global Championship tournament—not because of all the people he killed, but because of the one person he didn't kill.

The incident, captured and shared on Twitter by Alpha Intel, began when Dosen heard and then spotted an opposing player in the distance, standing out in the open and oddly still. Dosen quickly realized that the player had crashed, and instead of taking advantage of the opportunity for an easy kill, he told his TSM teammates not to shoot.

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There's a little bit of dissent among the ranks at first: Dosen's squadmates note that they need to get to a beacon that's presumably close to where the crashed player is stuck—and where his teammates may be waiting. They eventually decide to withdraw, but at least one of the TSM players doesn't sound entirely happy about it. 

Fortunately, it worked out for all involved: Both TSM and the opposing team in the match, identified by Dot Esports as SCARZ, qualified for the finals. When it all shook out, TSM earned $72,000 for a seventh place finish, while SCARZ took home $24,000 for 11th.

I won't lie: If I'm in Dosen's position, I'm taking the shot. Sportsmanship is great for beer league curling and trivia night at the pub, but when there's money on the table—especially amounts of money with multiple zeroes attached—then I'm gonna do what I gotta do. (And honestly, if there was no money involved I'd probably do it anyway, because when there are no real stakes involved it's just funny.)

Dosen, apparently, has a higher opinion of human nature: In response to one tweet praising his sportsmanship he tweeted, "It's the least every player can do out there with these issues."

Andy Chalk

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.