Debate Time: Should Labs Be Free?

Okay let me state a fact. Labs is dead. I'm not the first person to say it. You've got every streamer and bubba joe telling you its dead but you don't need them. Quick, go play a few labs raids and tell me how many players you found. Oh, and out of those players, how many were blatant cheaters looking to sell the juicy loot for real money? So, how would you make it not dead? Well, obviously you would make it free. No keycard required. Now let's talk about some counterarguments, as many do believe that labs shouldn't be changed.

Counterargument 1: It would flood the market with good gear early. Firstly, the loot could be nerfed to compensate. Secondly, this is already being done by the cheaters anyways. Nerf the loot? But the whole point of labs is high-risk high-reward. Okay sure but whatever vision Battlestate had for The Lab is irrelevant as its not the actual state of the map regardless. If the map won't be what they wanted it to be anyways, you might as well make it a normal map.

Counterargument 2: It would remove the barrier to entry that kept inexperienced players from playing a map with raiders that would completely destroy them, and the highly experienced players that play labs to farm said raiders. Nothing is keeping noobs from encountering veterans on any other map, and shielding the player is not helping them adapt to harsh, unforgiving game. Also, raiders are present on Reserve as well, which to be fair is an open map where it is easier to avoid them, but labs doesn't really have a massive barrier to entry given that you can spawn in with a keycard as a scav even before you get the therapist barter. Its just high enough of a barrier to make labs impractical to run consistently for the majority of inexperienced players while being technically available to someone just starting out.

Let the keyboard war…..Begin!