The high-stakes North American finals for the popular battle royale game Apex Legends were abruptly postponed on Sunday after a brazen hacking attack compromised the competitive integrity of the event. In an unprecedented move, hackers appeared to remotely enable a variety of cheats and exploits for professional players in the middle of tournament matches.
Chaos erupted as competitors suddenly found themselves with active cheats like aimbots, wallhacks, and other gameplay-breaking advantages forced upon them without their knowledge or consent. Footage rapidly circulated online showing pro players’ shock and confusion as their screens were overtaken by cheat overlays revealing enemy locations and automatically locking onto targets.
“I’m getting hacked, I’m getting hacked!” yelled a visibly distressed Genburten, one of the event’s top-ranked competitors, in a widely shared clip. “It’s cheating!” Another player, ImperialHal, was seen unable to shoot as an aimbot cheat likely interfered with his aim.
https://twitter.com/Apryze_/status/1769516394138206277
With the competition’s integrity fundamentally undermined, tournament organizers had no choice but to postpone the finals. “Due to the competitive integrity of this series being compromised, we have made the decision to postpone the NA finals at this time,” read an official statement from the Apex Legends Esports X account.
The nature of the hack remains unclear, but signs point to a pernicious remote code execution exploit potentially impacting Apex Legends itself or its Easy Anti-Cheat software. The Anti-Cheat Police Department warned that the exploit grants hackers ability to install malicious software, including ransomware, on affected PCs.
“Currently, the RCE is being abused to inject cheats into streamers’ machines, which means they have the capabilities to do whatever, like installing ransomware software locking up your entire PC,” the tracking group cautioned players. Participants have been advised to change passwords and reinstall operating systems as a precaution against lurking malware.
The hackers have now given 2 Apex Legends pro players cheats in the middle of an ALGS match.
ImperialHal has now also been hacked and the hacker forcibly enabled aimbot on his account mid game.
Have never seen something like this in esports. pic.twitter.com/VY30Q21Dok
— ModernWarzone (@ModernWarzone) March 18, 2024
While Easy Anti-Cheat’s makers stated confidence their product was not the vulnerability’s source, the incident underscores a disturbing escalation of hacking threats facing major esports events and competitive online gaming at the highest levels. Tournament organizers now face the monumental task of revising security protocols to prevent such attacks from marring future high-profile competitions.
