Apex Legends Tournament Postponed After Players Hacked Live
The Apex Legends Global Series, a high-stakes esports tournament featuring a $5 million prize pool, was abruptly suspended this past Sunday. The decision followed a series of security breaches that saw professional competitors forcibly injected with in-game cheats while live-streaming their matches.
During the incident, two prominent players, known as Genburten and ImperialHal, suddenly found themselves equipped with unauthorized software mid-match. The unexpected intrusion prompted immediate reactions from the players as they realized their game clients had been compromised.
Breach of Competitive Integrity
The disruption was highly visible to viewers. Genburten’s stream documented the moment when a “wallhack” cheat—which allows users to track opponents through solid obstacles—was activated on his screen. Before the cheat took hold, a menu titled “TSM HALAL HOOK” appeared briefly.
Simultaneously, a message appeared in the game’s chat claiming the intrusion was the work of hackers identified as “Destroyer2009 &R4andom.”
Another competitor, ImperialHal, experienced a similar takeover, as revealed in his own footage. He was suddenly equipped with an “aimbot,” an illicit tool that automatically locks onto targets. Frustrated, the player questioned his next move, asking, “What if I just don’t shoot?”
Tournament Suspension
Following the chaos, the Apex Legends Global Series organizers officially halted the North American finals. In a statement posted to X, officials cited the compromise of competitive integrity as the primary reason for the postponement, promising further updates in the near future.
While Electronic Arts, the publisher behind the title, has not yet provided details on the breach, the developer of the game’s security software has weighed in. Easy Anti-Cheat (EAC) addressed concerns regarding a potential remote code execution (RCE) vulnerability, which would have allowed attackers to execute malicious code on the players’ local machines.
- Easy Anti-Cheat officially denied the presence of an RCE exploit within their system.
- The company stated it is actively investigating the situation in collaboration with its partners.
- No definitive cause for the mid-game cheat injection has been confirmed by the publisher.
In a post on X, the official Easy Anti-Cheat account maintained confidence that their software was not the entry point for the exploit, despite the public nature of the hacks.