On Sunday, two competitive esports players appeared to be hacked during a live game, prompting organizers to postpone the tournament.
Players competed in Apex Legends World Seriesa competitive esports tournament for the popular shooter game Apex Legends, which has a total prize pool of $5 million.
During two separate games, two different players suddenly won cheats in the middle of their matches.
“Wait, what the hell? They’re hacking me, they’re hacking me bro, they’re hacking me,” Genburten said, holding his hands up during the game. according to a video they posted on Xwhich was also posted on several YouTube channels.
A screenshot of an Apex Legends player during a game in which he appeared to have been hacked mid-game.
In the video, it’s clear that at one point — abruptly — Genburten begins to see other players being marked on the map, even those behind walls. This is what is called a “wallhack”, essentially a cheat that allows hackers to see opponents through obstacles in the game.
Before that, a window briefly appears on their screen, with what looks like a menu for a cheat activation tool, titled “TSM HALAL HOOK”.
A screenshot of a window, showing cheat modes, that pops up in a competitive game of Apex Legends.
At the same time, the game’s chatbot shows a message which appears to be from the hackers: “Global Apex hacking series, by Destroyer2009 & R4andom.”
In the other match, something similar happens with another competitive Apex Legends player, ImperialHal, who also posted the series on their X account.
“Cheating, cheating, cheating, fucking cheating,” said ImperialHal. “I have an aimbot!” ImperialHal said repeatedly, referring to a common cheat technique that allows players to auto-target enemies, essentially gaining the ability to hit opponents and other players without being targeted. “What if I don’t shoot? What if I don’t shoot?’
After these hacks, the tournament organizers announced that they suspended and postponed the tournament.
“Due to the competitive integrity of this series being at stake, we have made the decision to postpone the [North America] finals right now. We will share more information soon” announced the official Apex Legends Esports account on X.
At this point, it’s unclear exactly what happened. Electronic Arts, the publisher of Apex Legends, did not immediately respond to emails from TechCrunch seeking comment. Neither did Genburten and ImperialHal.
On Monday, the makers of the anti-cheat system in Apex Legends and other games, Easy Anti-Cheat, ruled out the possibility of a Remote Code Execution (RCE) bug in the anti-cheat system. RCE is a security flaw that allows a remote hacker to execute malicious code on a target’s device.
“We have investigated recent reports of a possible RCE issue in Easy Anti-Cheat. At this time – we are confident that there is no RCE vulnerability in EAC that is being exploited. We will continue to work closely with our partners for any further support required,” the official Easy Anti-Cheat account posted on X.
