Good day, y’all! Name’s VolcanFPS - you might know me as one of the PRO Apex players working on the Legionfarm platform. You can play with me or hire me as a coach, in which case we’ll go together through a personalized training program with guaranteed results... I’ve already got over 4k hours playing with our customers across 2000 sessions.

Anyway, today I wanted to talk to you about a very interesting individual and a big Apex Legends star - Jack "NiceWigg" Martin. He is the first person to play Apex Legends on PC using a gamepad on the PRO scene. Currently, Jack works as a content creator and a caster for the 100 Thieves e-sports organization. NiceWigg Twitch and YouTube channels have hundreds of thousands of followers.
I think that his devotion to using the gamepad, as well as the story of his upbringing as a PRO Apex player, can help you, dear readers see the game in a new light.

As years go by, more and more AL players get very good at the game. Bronze rank used to feel like a children’s playground, but these days, oof! Everyone got some kind of tricks up their sleeves, and everyone tries to pull off some crazy moves, even on that rating. But the only thing that really slows you down as you try to progress to higher ranks is the people you play with. Since everyone is a “PRO” on Bronze, they all pretty much do their own thing, never paying any mind to their teammates. And I know how frustrating this can be. The higher you go, the more apparent it becomes that you really need a constant team.

Meanwhile, if you watch videos from NiceWigg, he always plays with some cool dudes. His teammates are often other famous Apex players. So you sit there and probably wonder - “I wish I could play with them” or “I wish I had the same kind of awesome teammates.” Am I right? Well, I am here to tell you that your dreams can come true!

Who is Jack “NiceWigg” Martin?

For NiceWigg Apex Legends wasn’t the first game, he played at a competitive level. Born in 1997 in upstate New York, US, as a young kid, Jack played a lot of Call of Duty. His first ever game that he played was Call of Duty 2: Big Red One, which he played on his brother’s console. The first game that Jack religiously played was Call of Duty Modern Warfare on Xbox 360. However, when Apex Legends came out in 2019, Jack decided to try it out and fell in love with it. Since then, Apex has remained the main game that he plays. Before becoming an internet celebrity, Jack worked as a personal trainer after facing some health issues related to obesity. In the period from 2018-2019, he dropped around 160, going from 360 pounds to 200 pounds. Physical activities and sports also helped Jack greatly with his mental health.

His parents and his older brother have all been very supportive of his career as a professional gamer, and Jack says that it would’ve been a big regret in his life if he didn’t pursue his passion.

He was the first ever controller player who got signed to a tier-1 organization called Counter Logic Gaming.

As Jack admits, his streaming career skyrocketed when a player named Dizzy hosted his stream. Dizzy was one of the biggest pioneers of Apex Legends when the game first came out. At some point, NiceWigg decided to quit Apex for a while, but before that happened, Jack suddenly learned that his stream was being broadcasted from Dizzy’s channel. When Jack realized it, he was overwhelmed with emotions since it meant a lot to him. Later on, he and Dizzy teamed up. By the end of that match, Jack had more kills and dealt more damage than Dizzy. When Dizzy found out that Jack was using a controller this whole time, that’s when NiceWigg’s talent got recognized.

Jack’s big inspirations behind becoming a streamer and an Apex PRO player are Matthew Haag, aka Nadeshot, and Seth Abner, aka Scump. Both of these high-skilled players are making money off playing games competitively while at the same time inspiring millions to do exactly what they want to do. Another CoD PRO player that amazed young Jack was Phillip “PHiZZURP” Klemenov. His tactics in Search and Destroy game modes in CoD: Black Ops 2 made Jack wake up at 5 am in the morning and watch his streams before school!

Watching these gaming stars play, Jack decided for good that he wanted to be a PRO player of the game that he liked. Back then, he was working as a personal trainer at a gym, and he wasn’t happy. So, he invested his last money into a PC and paid the house rent for 2 months in advance to try his luck at streaming. Not long after that, I followed that faithful stream hosted by Dizzy.

NiceWigg’s Apex Legends Settings

NiceWigg Apex settings are very custom. He utilizes all available options, which, when coupled with his aggressive yet strategic playstyle, made him prove that controller players can keep up with mouse+keyboard players. When the game came out, all the big streamers weren’t touching a controller. It is commonly known that PC players have the advantage over controller users, which is exactly why fans were mind-blown by NiceWigg's skills that helped him overcome this disadvantage and allowed him to kill top players in every match he played.

If you watch the hand cam during any of the NiceWigg’s streams, you’ll notice how fast he moves his hands. Jack admits that this kind of intensity might be the cause of him breaking a lot of his controllers.

According to his Liquipedia page, Jack uses the Scuf Impact controller. He and this controller manufacturer go way back. In December 2019, Jack did an interview on the official SCUF YouTube channel, where he talked a little bit about his first controller. But, let’s actually talk about NiceWigg Apex settings because, believe it or not, there’s a lot to go through. So, grab a snack, and let’s dig in!

Gameplay Settings

Before we begin, Jack is strongly advising you to cap your PC framerate to not more than 144 FPS. Otherwise, you’re going to get a serious input lag. There are a few quick guides on how to do that for Origin and Steam clients.

Jack says that these are the general settings, and they don’t matter all that much as they don’t really customize your gameplay as much as you think.

One thing that NiceWigg does go into a bit more detail is his preference regarding the Auto-Sprint option. He has it turned on as he doesn’t like spamming the left click non-stop or even needing to think about it. This is a very preferred thing because some people like slow-walking and don’t like not being in control of sprinting or not. If Jack wants to slow-walk, he just crouches.

NiceWigg Controller Settings

There are a bunch of different presets, and it’s an extremely big preference thing, once again. It all depends on what controller you have and who you like to play.

The Default layout is NOT for people that have no paddles on their controller and are not using a claw grip. The claw grip is a controversial topic, usually used by people that play Smash Bros. a lot. So, it’s not uncommon to see gamers use this grip, although it comes at the cost of some health issues like arthritis and carpal tunnel, to name a few.

You will really hurt your gameplay by having your crouch button on B (or circle). It means you would have to take your thumb off the right stick and move it all the way over to the crouch button. There’s no reason to take your thumbs off the sticks that many times in a gunfight. Besides, since sliding is a very big part of Apex Legends, and so is crouching, you have to think about how fast you can do this action. You can’t even spam crouching while aiming with the Default layout.

In Jack’s opinion, the Bumper Jumper preset is just as bad as the Default one as it doesn’t solve the issue with the crouch button.

However, the Button Puncher is Jack’s favorite preset. He even goes as far as to say that this particular layout helped his gaming career tenfold. The reason is that your right stick becomes your crouch which means that you can finally spam your right stick in gunfights if you’re hip firing with something like a Flatline without taking your thumb off the stick.

The second most famous present is called Evolved. With this one, you have your Jump set to LB (Left Bumper or L1).

So, if you don’t play with paddles and aren’t using the claw grip, having Jump on LB is awesome. Having your tactical on A (or X) and your crouch on the Right Stick again is very effective. It’s just that NiceWigg is used to having Jump assigned to A, which is why he is using the Button Puncher preset.

If you don’t jump that much in the game, same as Jack, you would be comfortable taking your thumb off the stick to press the Jump button. But if you don’t want to take your thumb off the sticks at all, unless you’re using a tactical ability (which is like every 20 seconds), Evolve is really beneficial for you cause you only need to tap LB to Jump.

Grenadier preset is also not that good because it still has B on Crouch.

Ninja is a very interesting layout. It makes your LB (L1) Jump and RB (R1) Crouch. So, it is potentially a good choice, although NiceWigg admits that he doesn’t see himself being accurate in a gunfight while spamming RB for Crouch.

Customized preset is simply for those who want to have their own unique preset. Other than that, the 3 most used layouts are:

• Button Puncher - used by NiceWigg
• Evolved
• Ninja
  

If you’re using paddles, you’re able to map whatever button you want to the back of your paddles. Generally speaking, you’re allowed to have 4 paddles on the back of your controller.Usually, these additional buttons assigned the following actions:

It’s super helpful to have these paddles because you never have to worry about taking your thumbs off the thumbstick.

To sum it all up, try out these presets if you’re using a controller to see which one improves your movement. It might take a really long time, so don’t get annoyed when it gets frustrating. It’s going to take some time before your brain and muscle memory register which buttons are which.

Other Controller Settings

• Stick Layout - people, change this setting just to be different. In general, this setting is standardized for everyone who plays video games. Default is definitely the better option. However, there are some people who play using the Southpaw option. It all comes down to comfortability. Other than that, there’s no benefit to switching these. The Legacy Southpaw option is splitting both movements and turning your camera in between two sticks which makes the whole thing just feel weird.
• Interact/Reload Button - Jack has it on Tap to Use and Reload as this makes interaction with things faster. You don’t have to hold anything. Holding buttons, in general, has no sens in terms of time purposes.
• Couch Button - is set to Toggle. This is a very controversial topic among Apex players. Toggling allows you to spam the crouch a little bit more, but it’s up to your personal preference once again. It will come down to remembering to toggle off crouch when you’re fighting. Also, you can’t specifically Bunny Hop with Toggle, but with Hold, you can.
• Aim Button - should be on Hold. If you set it to Toggle - change it back. Having Aim on Toggle is hurting your gameplay for no reason. Even keyboard+mouse players don’t use Toggle to aim. You should only be ADS’ed when you’re holding your left trigger. You should never have to un-ADS by clicking it twice. Just use Hold for easier controls.
• Trigger Deadzones - decides when your shots are going to get registered. It all depends on what you like. Jack’s choice is the Default option. Remember, he is using the SCUF controller that has manual trigger stops. All you need to remember is that the lower the deadzone, the faster it will trigger. It kind of acts like digital or virtual trigger stops. So, customize it to your preference.

Manual trigger stops on SCUF Impact controller.

Menu Cursor Speed - is a nice option that the devs added later on. The default value may seem a bit slow, so you will probably want to set it to a higher value. Beware, though. You might miss-loot because of this. But on the other hand, you’ll be able to pull off those quick armor swaps in tight situations. If you’re new to the game and you struggle to loot in the first place, going higher will only make it more difficult for you because you’ll probably be flying through the menu and won’t even pick up what you want. It might take an adjustment period for this. Overall, the faster it is, the quicker you can be with looting.

Movement/Aiming

This is where gamepad users have one of a few advantages over the mouse and keyboard users. One of them is that you have good aim up close and personal. You have to decide for yourself - do you want to be a little more flashy-esque player or a little more consistent player with your sprays? As a controller player, you would want to be tracking your best, winning CQB gunfights, and hitting your Mastiff shots. If you’re not doing these things as a controller player, you’re not doing your job. Because those are 3 advantages, you have on keyboard and mouse players. Aim assist is real, and it helps at close range. But if you’re doing something that messes with your tracking, you’re taking away the whole point of using a gamepad. Considering all of that, Nicewigg Settings for movement and aiming are as follows:

Look Sensitivity - having this on Super High (6) makes Jack feel a little bit more free running around, doing wall jumps and 360s, etc. This option is fast enough but not too fast. Consider hip-firing and movement outside gunfights when selecting the right option for you. Going too high is beneficial in some ways, but having lower sens gives you more accuracy. Going too low, however, is simply limiting yourself to being like a turret.

On a mouse and keyboard, this is different because, on a controller, you don’t have a huge mouse pad where you can flick, and it doesn’t go at the speed of your arm. Controller’s limited movement-wise because you don’t have that luxury of space. So what you put in these first two options is what you’re going to get.

Look Sensitivity (ADS) - High (4) is the best option that goes well with the previous setting. It’s often called 6’4. If you’re someone who likes high sens, it’s fine. But if you’re coming into the game as a new player or someone who is looking to get a little bit better at their game, 4 is the best ADS sens in the game. It feels extremely balanced between being able to keep up with people moving really fast using something like a grapple, and you can also beam someone at close range where your aim doesn’t go all over the place.

If you’re looking to change your sensitivity, it’s going to take time to readjust. Changing it is very annoying. This is why you can’t keep changing your sensitivity when you play bad for a week. If you’re still in doubt about which one you should pick, you should hire a coach and go over with them all possible combinations to find the one that suits you best. And then you would practice with it.

• Per Optic Settings - NiceWigg doesn’t use customized sensitivity for different types of optics in the game. So, here you can select what you feel is comfortable for you. If you feel like you want your x8 scope to be faster because you’re more zoomed in, go for it!
• Response Curve - this is how your analog sticks and their inputs feel like. Jack uses the Classic option as it feels very clean and amazing. He hasn’t changed this setting since the day he started playing the game. The Fine Aim option gives you that edge at aiming. Something that mouse players have over controller players is smaller, minor adjustments in their shots. With a controller, you can’t do this sort of micro-adjustments. So, Fine Aim lets you do that, but it also makes it way harder to aim because now every little change in your thumb stick position is being registered. You have to practice a lot with it if you want to be good at tracking with this option. If not, just stay on Classic.
• Look Deadzone - if you have stick drift on your controller and you can’t get it fixed, this option is great for you. It makes the sticks drift disappear. Also, a smaller dead zone means better aim. This setting should not be amped up as it will affect your aim in a negative way. Keep this setting as down as possible. That’s why Jack’s setting is Small.
• Movement Deadzone - this is also something you should have on Small and not increase it.
• Inverted Look - don’t ever change it to ON unless you’re really used to it.
• Vibration - is another controversial setting. Some people think that having vibration ON helps you recognize gun patterns and therefore improves your aim, but it’s not true. So, leave it at OFF.
• Advanced Look Controls - this category gives you full control of everything you do in Apex Legends. NiceWigg ALC settings are custom, but he admits that he turns them off completely sometimes.
  

ALC Settings

These settings are extremely preference-based. Even NiceWigg has changed them a few times since the first time he mentioned using them in his video from December 2020. These settings are extremely self-explanatory. Each option has a description on the right that explains what the option does pretty well. ALC allows you to change the speed of vertical and horizontal camera movement separately. This is why ALC has become more and more popular among Apex controller players because you get so much customizability.

At the same time, ALC is not for everybody. It’s good for those people that want to find out what they like and what they don’t like about their controls. But you won’t get better after two weeks of using ALC. Most gamers end up spending half a year finding the right settings for them.

That being said, in here, we’ll just give you the list of the last known NiceWigg’s ALC settings:

• Deadzone - 5%
• Outer Threshold - 1%
• Response Curve - 7
• Yaw Speed - 375
• Pitch Speed - 280
• Turning Extra Yaw - 0
• Turning Extra Pitch - 0
• Turning Ramp-up Time - 0%
• Turning Ramp-up Delay - 0%
• ADS Yaw Speed - 115
• ADS Pitch Speed - 90
• ADS Turning Extra Yaw - 0
• ADS Turning Extra Pitch - 0
• ADS Turning Ramp-up Time - 0%
• ADS Turning Ramp-up Delay - 0%
• Target Compensation - On
• Melee Target Compensation - On
  

Video Settings

NiceWigg’s video settings reflect his PC setup, and there’s not much to talk about here. He is using a 3-monitor setup - BenQ Zowie XL2540, ASUS VG248QG 24″, Samsung Odyssey G3 24″.

Here’s the list of his settings:

• Display Mode - Fullscreen
• Aspect Ratio - 16:10
• Resolution - 1680x1050 (stretched)
• Brightness - 59%
• Field of View (FOV) - 94
• FOV Ability Scaling - Enabled
• Sprint View Shake - Normal
• V-Sync - Disabled
• Nvidia Reflex - Disabled
• Adaptive Resolution FPS Target - 0
• Anti-Aliasing - None
• Texture Streaming Budget - Low (2-3GB VRAM)
• Texture Filtering - Anisotropic 2X
• Ambient Occlusion Quality - Disabled
• Sun Shadow Coverage - Low
• Sun Shadow Detail - Low
• Spot Shadow Detail - Disabled
• Volumetric Lighting - Disabled
• Dynamic Spot Shadows - Disabled
• Model Detail - Low
• Effects Detail - Low
• Impact Marks - Disabled
• Ragdolls - Low
• Color Blind Mode - Off

One thing to keep in mind in terms of FOV - you should stay away from anything under 90. Anything under 90 is going to hurt you, as your teamplay is going to suffer. You’re going to be oblivious to what is going on around you because you’ll have tunnel vision with a lower field of view. You want to see everything you can during team fights.

PC Setup

Jack is a PC player who uses a gamepad, so his streaming and gaming setup looks like this:

• Controller - Scuf Impact
• Mouse - Logitech G Pro Wireless
• Monitor - BenQ Zowie XL2540
• 2nd Monitor - ASUS VG248QG 24″
• 3rd Monitor - Samsung Odyssey G3 24″
• Headset - JBL Quantum 800 Wireless
• Microphone - Shure SM7B
• Mixer - TC-Helicon GoXLR
• Keyboard - Logitech G Pro Mechanical
• Control Pad - Elgato Stream Deck XL
• Webcam - Sony Alpha A6400
• Chair - Herman Miller Aeron
  

As for NiceWigg Apex PC specs:

• CPU - Intel i7-10700K
• GPU - MSI GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
• Memory - Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro 32GB
• Motherboard - MSI MEG Z490 ACE
• SSD - Seagate Firecuda 510 NVMe 2TB
• HDD - Seagate Barracuda 4TB
• PSU - Corsair HX1000 1000W
• Case - Rosewill Prism T
• Fans - Cooler Master SickleFlow 120 V2 Triple Pack
• CPU Cooler - Cooler Master MasterLiquid ML240L RGB V2
  

For streaming on Twitch NiceWigg uses the following specs:

• CPU - Intel i9-9900K
• GPU - ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 2080 Ti
• Memory - G.Skill TridentZ RGB 32GB
• Motherboard - Gigabyte Z390 Aorus Pro
• CPU Cooler - Corsair H100i RGB Platinum White
  

Get As Good At Apex As NiceWigg With Legionfarm PROs

It must feel pretty badass to be as good of a controller player as apex NiceWigg. You can become just as good as him! And to do that, you don’t even have to copy all his settings. Jack’s story told us that inspiration is key to self-perfection. If you had teammates who you could look up to and play with, you’d become better at the game in no time! That’s the secret recipe, ladies and gentlemen!

This is what makes the Legionfarm platform and community such a great place for self-improvement. There are a lot of PRO players out there like yours truly, who have the experience and skills necessary to make a strong and competitive Apex player out of you! Advancing through the ranks and working on your unique skillset in the game is possible here.

Yes, you may not be able to play with NiceWigg personally, but if you are as passionate about this game as he is, Legionfarm is where you can have a similar experience. You can even stream your games when playing with PROs showing your friends how you dominate the lobbies and have a grand time altogether!

Back to Blog