Today, Respawn Entertainment revealed the official launch trailer for their Season 2 Battle pass. In reality, the trailer was leaked the day before and blew up on Reddit but it was pretty low quality compared with the 1080 HD version uploaded to YouTube. 

With a Tweet, Respawn sent the Apex Legends player base into a frenzy of hype and theory crafting:

Who is the hacker character on the computer?  Is it Crypto?

We saw Octane's eye!

Is a destroyed Kings Canyon going to replace the current one or serve as a whole new map?

Will Pathfinder's hitbox ever be fixed?

And, the oldest question of them all has to do with the big scaley beast accompanied by a host flying pterodactyl looking monsters. The massive scale NPC was teased months earlier with just an eyeball and back then we didn't really know what we were looking it.

EDIT:

Turns out, per the Social Media manager at Respawn, the official name for the flying monsters are... Flyers!

And, as it turns out, we still don't.

Purely aesthetic or something more?

A popular theory is that the monsters will destroy Kings Canyon to make way for an alternate variant of the map. Another is that the monsters will represent a new sort of PvE mode in which players can destroy baddies while running around Kings Canyon attempting to stabilize the map and contain the threats (after all, Apex Legends is a game about a deathmatch style tournament -- the in-game world really can't allow giant leviathans to interrupt proceedings for long, right?)

But these are all just guesses. For now, we don't have any idea on what role the monsters will play with regards to gameplay, but a press release sent by Respawn does provide a subtle hint about Kings Canyon

"Apex Legends Season 2 - Battle Charge - is almost here with new content already live in-game, with more set to launch with the update on July 2. In anticipation of this new season, EA and Respawn have released a new CG trailer with Bangalore, Octane and the soon to be released Natalie “Wattson” Paquette, making their way across the familiar but altered landscape of Kings Canyon. "

The emphasis on the "altered landscape" leads us to believe that there will almost assuredly be a new version of Kings Canyon available to play in the near future. Whether it is one that includes ravaging monsters for purely aesthetic reasons or as possible map hazards is another question entirely.

In addition, the official Apex Legends website also hints that Kings Canyon couldn't have stayed the same forever, not conclusive evidence that the old Kings Canyon will go away, but something that leans in that direction.

What is in Season 2?

Season 2 brings on a new Legend, Wattson and a new energy weapon, the L-Star. Ranked play is also coming to Apex Legends and, while that particular E3 announcement was sorely appreciated by the competitive community looking for a way to distinguish themselves, we can only wait and see how the inclusion of a Ranked mode will effective the casual community.

As many gamers have learned from the love-hate relationship Overwatch ranked play creates, sometimes the added pressure and saltiness can make a game harder to enjoy for a large majority of players.