Update March 20th 4:07AM: Respawn has released the first of "a layered series of updates" intended to address the Apex Legends hacking issue that affected a pro esports event earlier this week.
In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Respawn says these updates are aimed at protecting the Apex Legends community and creating a secure experience for everyone.
Apex Legends security head Conor Ford, also known as Hideouts, reposted Respawn's announcement, adding that the Apex Legends security team consists of "some of the most talented" people he's ever worked with.
Original story follows below.
Original story: The Apex Legends Global Series North American regional finals event has been postponed indefinitely after pro players were hacked during a match.
As reported by the official X (formerly Twitter) account for esports.gg, Apex Legends players Genburten and Imperial Hal had their games hacked while battling for spots in the North Americal regional finals for the Global Series.
Genburten apparently had his game injected with a wallhack, allowing him to see every player on the map, while Imperial Hal suddenly found himself "using" an aimbot, allowing him to hit players with perfect aim.
Looking closely at the video in which Genburten appears to be hacked, text is visible that reads "Apex hacking global series by Destroyer2009 & R4ndom".
Destroyer2009 appears to be a repeat offender in the Apex Legends community. Back in January, Reddit user talalm5 posted a video of Destroyer2009, and several users commented on the anonymous player's cheating.
What's more, this isn't even Destroyer2009's first run-in with Imperial Hal. Again, in January this year, Hal posted a clip of Destroyer2009 seemingly in the act of cheating, so perhaps this hack is revenge for that post.
Whatever Destroyer2009 and R4ndom's motivation might be, their hacks led to the official Apex Legends esports X account announcing earlier today that the ALGS regional finals have been indefinitely postponed due to the tournament's "competitive integrity" being compromised.
This isn't the first time Apex Legends has run into trouble due to being hacked. Back in July 2021, disgruntled Titanfall players hacked the game to show a message, which pointed players towards the website for the Save Titanfall campaign.
The following year, cheaters in Apex Legends discovered a method by which they could kick players from games and spawn them in random areas, including the battle royale shooter's firing range.
As of yet, Apex Legends security chief Conor Ford, also known as Hideouts, hasn't responded to the hacking incident. We'll update this story as soon as we hear anything further.
