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The Apex Legends Global Series is an annual tournament that sees the top teams in the world compete for millions of dollars across multiple events throughout the year. The North American Pro Split 1 was set to conclude on March 17 with a total prize pool of $125,000, but the event was called off due to “compromised competitive integrity” after two players were targeted by hackers mid-tournament while streaming live on Twitch. This was caused by the hackers forcibly applying cheats including wall hacks and aim bot to the pro’s accounts while they were in a match.
The two pros targeted in the attack were DarkZero’s Noyan “Genburten” Ozkose and TSM’s Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen. It is unclear why the two pros were targeted, but it is believed that the hack was implemented by exploiting the game’s anti-cheat protection via remote code execution.
A Twitch clip from Genburten’s stream shows the moment the aimbot first activated while a message displayed on screen via the game’s chat saying “Apex hacking global series by Destroyer2009 & R4ndom.” Genburten noticed that he could see the outlines of other players on his screen and immediately raised his hands off his keyboard and mouse while exclaiming “I’m getting hacked,” he then immediately left the game without engaging in any further combat in order to avoid his team being penalised.
No announcement has been made regarding when the tournament will resume, or what steps EA and Respawn Entertainment will be taking to ensure no more hacks occur and the tournament can conclude without incident. Unless the tournament takes place without an official announcement so the hackers are unaware that it is taking place, it is possible this could happen again unless the developers take action to fix the exploit so it doesn’t affect future tournaments.
Apex Legends is currently in its 20th season titled ‘Breakout’ as the game enters it’s fifth year. The new season began in February 2024. The season will last until approximately May 2024. Respawn Entertainment’s battle royale game is currently one of the most competitive shooters alongside Call of Duty and Fortnite with hundreds of thousands of players dropping in every day. If you haven’t played Apex Legends yet, check out our guide for the best CPUs to use to get the smoothest experience when playing.
