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WTF?! We’ve seen cheating in eSports matches before, though these latest incidents were quite different. Over the weekend, two players in the Apex Legends Global Series tournament appeared to be hacked during a live-streamed game and were given cheats, leading to the competition being postponed.
The Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) 2023 – 24 NA Pro League Split Finals were taking place on March 17 when the two separate hacks occurred.
Player Noyan “Genburten” Ozkose was competing in his match when a window appeared on his screen with the title “TSM HALAL HOOK.” The window interface shows a selection of cheats that can be enabled. It appears that Ozkose was given an aimbot as well as a wallhack that allowed him to see other players through obstacles.
Genburten was aware of what was happening. “I’m getting hacked. I’m getting hacked,” he yelled, before quickly ending the match. Soon after, a message from the hackers appeared in the lobby that read “Apex hacking global series by Destroyer2009 & R4ndom.”
MULTI BILLION DOLLAR ESPORT BTWW pic.twitter.com/e1B9lfDt3C
– DZ_Genburten (@Genburten) March 18, 2024
Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen was next to be hacked. “I’m cheating, I’m cheating, I’m cheating,” he yelled. “I got aimbot!” he said, after realizing his bullets were hitting targets he couldn’t see. Fandomwire writes that ImperialHal tried to continue playing but was banned, and the server was quickly shut down by the admins.
So i was given Aimbot but it was just me playing on Controller all good guys. Nerf controller! pic.twitter.com/2ztHtoOnRB
– TSM ImperialHal (@ImperialHal) March 18, 2024
The organizers have announced that the NA finals were being postponed due to the “competitive integrity of this series being compromised.” The official account posted that more information would be shared soon.
The Anti-Cheat Police Department, a group of volunteers that gathers intelligence on cheats and disrupts vendors, wrote that a remote code execution (RCE) bug was being abused to inject cheats into streamers’ machines. The message says it is unsure whether this comes from the game or the anti-cheat system. It’s recommended that players in the tournament change their Discord passwords, ensure their emails are secure, and enable MFA for all accounts. A clean OS install is also recommended.
PSA: There is currently an RCE exploit being abused in @PlayApex. It is unsure whether it comes from the game or the actual anti-cheat (@TeddyEAC ). I would advise against playing any games protected by EAC or any EA titles once they have fixed this or can comment.
Currently,…
– Anti-Cheat Police Department �*�ï¸Â (@AntiCheatPD) March 18, 2024
The makers of Easy Anti-Cheat, which is used in Apex Legends and other games, said on Monday that it had ruled out the possibility of a RCE bug in the system.
