What happens when you mix a lackluster casual twitch shooter, riddled with inclusivity and identity politics, produced by one of the most heinous corporate entities in the gaming industry, with competitive esports?
It turns out you get one of the most comically absurd spectacles to emerge from professional gaming in quite some time, for all the wrong reasons.
Apex Legends is a game I loathe primarily due to its casual nature as a first-person shooter developed by Electronic Arts. It’s inundated with diverse character designs and functions as yet another live service tool, designed to extract money from players through seasonal content updates and cosmetic items.
So imagine my surprise when word goes around that a competitive tournament for Apex Legends has been indefinitely postponed due to players getting hacked mid-game.
Cheating in online competitive games remains a recurring problem, with numerous instances of prominent professional players being banned for their use of cheats. Counter-Strike players like Emilio have faced Valve Anti-Cheat bans, with his of note occurring even mid-match. Others, such as KQLY, Sf, and AREA, have also been hit with VAC bans, effectively putting an end to their careers.
In one notable case, an Indian “individual “professional” was caught with cheats during a LAN event.
However, it appears that Apex Legends possesses a unique vulnerability compared to other “professional” esports shooters. Malicious individuals can seemingly hijack accounts mid-match and forcefully activate cheats unbeknownst to the players themselves.
Literally.
The Apex Legends Global Series is a significant competition for Respawn’s first-person battle royale, initiated in 2019. This year’s tournament marked one of the largest in ALGS history, boasting a $3 million prize pool and participation from over 60 countries and regions.
However, over the March 13 weekend, the event encountered a sudden halt when a couple of professional Apex Legends players, Noyan “Genburten” Ozkose and Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen, were “hacked” during the North American finals.
It was an unusual sight, as instead of these cheats instantly killing them or causing game disruptions, they provided both players with distinct advantages.
In Game Four, DarkZero’s Genburten was the first to be targeted by a hack, which resulted in a sudden appearance of a cheat UI interface on his screen. This interface granted him the ability to see players through walls, and according to the hack, Genburten was also provided with an aimbot.
While some might speculate that Genburten inadvertently activated cheating software mid-match, I disagree. The reason being, upon the activation of the cheating software, the in-game text chat from Genburten’s account was indiscriminately spamming messages proclaiming “By Destroyer2009 & R4ndom” and “Apex Hacking Global Series” without any specific input from the individual themselves.
Vote Putin.
Despite DarkZero’s IGL (in-game leader) Zer0 inquiring if Genburten could continue playing while being hacked, Genburten chose not to proceed. Instead, he remained inside a room to prevent the cheats from interfering with the game, given how he can see all players through walls, he eventually left the game.
The game therefore was reset by the organizers, however hacks were once again bestowed upon players, with the next victim being TSM’s ImperialHal as the recipient.
As TSM prepared for combat, Hal noticed his aim became remarkably precise, prompting him to inform his teammates that he had been equipped with an aimbot.
As TSM sought refuge within a building, Hal’s teammates Reps and Verhulst urged him to exit the game. Despite Hal’s determination to continue playing, it appears that the server was promptly shut down by the administrators.
Approximately 15 minutes after the server shutdown, the ALGS admins announced on stream and Twitter that the NA Finals would be postponed.
Despite the swift decision to postpone the matches, the players expressed dissatisfaction. With Dark Zero’s Genburten tweeting the following.
EA and Respawn Entertainment have yet to comment on the series of unfortunate events and whether they affect all Apex players. However, it’s evident that this incident stands as one of the most destructive exploits in any prominent esports title. While cheating is a common issue, the ability for external interference to hijack professional players mid-match with cheats, ESP, and other malicious utilities is unprecedented.
This not only undermines competitive integrity but also highlights just how much of a joke Apex Legends is when it comes to the competitive scene, akin to the struggles faced by Activision Blizzard’s now dead Overwatch League.
With Electronic Arts boasting a net worth of $36 billion, they’re but a small indie company so one cannot be overly disappointing that their game fails to provide adequate security measures that prevents outside individuals from injecting cheats into competitive matches.
