Respawn Entertainment and Apex Legends cannot seem to catch a break right now.
It has not been a great last few days for both Respawn Entertainment and Apex Legends and it's looking like it can only get worse before it gets any better. World championship-winning orgs like DarkZero Esports as well as TSM came under direct attack during the ALGS North America Regional Finals, which took place earlier today.
Just a few days ago, Respawn had announced its own round of layoffs, something that has been a common occurrence in the tech, video games, and esports industry as a whole over the last few months. And now, some of its best professional players were targeted by a well-known hacker within the Apex Legends community.
The first to get hit was DZ's Noyan "Genburten" Ozkose in the third game of the NA regional finals. Playing as Caustic on Storm Point, it all seemed fine for Genburten until a pop-up window appeared mid-game and just a few seconds later, had highlights of all enemy players around him. He was given instant wall hacks and rightfully called it out, to which he would then leave the game.
There was a delay during the live stream of the regional finals with no mention on what had happened. But eagle-eyed viewers who would tune in to the player's live streams directly knew what was going on. And at the start of game four on Storm Point as well, it was TSM's turn to get burned and who else but the game's very own CEO in Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen. However, the hacks that were given to him were a lot more comical as compared to Genburten.
ImperialHal was given an aimbot during his team's rotate to zone, which was cut short by two teams contesting nearby. Wanting to third-party, he would instantly crack one enemy despite not even looking in that direction. However, what transpired was even funnier. Contemplating between leaving the game or not, Hal decided to just not shoot instead as he was on Bloodhound and was still able to provide support without firepower.
He would regain back control but then instantly put down a full team without fully knowing if it was him actually doing it or the aimbot. You can watch the entire POV here. And just minutes after this happened, the match was called off entirely and soon after, the ALGS NA Regional Finals would be postponed due to the competitive integrity of the tournament. While there has been no word since on when it will be replayed, the hacking that happened during the regional finals was the first of its kind in the ALGS.
Apex Legends has long been plagued with a myriad of issues as many within the community have pointed out for some time now. As the game is highly popular towards streamers with many seeing it as a viable opportunity to turn it into a full-time job, it has since come under threat with the huge spike of cheaters available in the game over the last few seasons. Whether it was in a public match setting or in ranked, cheaters are almost always present with either wall hacks or aimbots and sometimes even both.
Other hacks have also included holding multiple weapons at one time, zero cooldown on abilities, as well as speed hacks to name a few. While Respawn did introduce a new ban system towards hackers and have been putting in a shift since its introduction, it still doesn't technically solve the anti-cheat solution that the game desperately needs.
How deep does it go?
Ever since this happened earlier today, one prominent Twitter/X user by the handle @AntiCheatPD has posted a series of tweets regarding the situation. It's also been allegedly confirmed that it was a remote code execution (RCE) exploit that was being abused in the game. Of course, they did follow up that it was still unsure if it came from the game itself or from its anti-cheat software, Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC).
The owner of the account had even gone on to advise players against playing any games that are protected by EAC or even any Electronic Arts-related titles to be safe. Even players who took part in the ALGS NA regional finals weren't spared as they were strongly recommended to take immediate action in protecting their personal information. There was even a screenshot of an alleged conversation with the hacker.
And after doing some digging, it's been confirmed that EAC is in fact the anti-cheat service provider to Apex Legends alongside a host of other games that are listed on its website. With the ALGS directly affected from this attack, it can be safe to assume that this can be a potential threat and issue for the everyday players who just want to play for fun. And it's not just Apex Legends that is affected as another Twitter/X user by the handle @LookAtMyMeat1 had a list on all the games that can be affected by the RCE exploit due to them using the EAC software.
However, EAC has since come out with a response regarding the situation, stating “We have investigated recent reports of a potential RCE issue within Easy Anti-Cheat. At this time - we are confident that there is no RCE vulnerability within EAC being exploited. We will continue to work closely with our partners for any follow-up support needed.”
It remains to be seen what will happen to the ALGS right now and more importantly, what of the longevity of Apex Legends and the message it sends to potential sponsors and investors in the future. The game has been in the doldrums for some time now and while this did bring plenty of exposure, it was for all the wrong reasons.