On Sunday, two competitive esports players were apparently hacked during a live streaming game, prompting organizers to postpone the tournament.
The players were participating in the Apex Legends Global Series, a competitive esports tournament for the popular shooter game Apex Legends with a total prize pool of $5 million.
During two separate games, two different players suddenly acquired cheats in the middle of the match.
“Wait, what the hell? I'm hacked, I'm hacked, brother, I'm hacked,” Gembarten said, raising his hands during the game. According to the video they posted on Xwas also posted on multiple YouTube channels.
An in-game screenshot of an Apex Legends player. Looks like it was hacked during the game.
At one point in the video, it's clear that Genbleten suddenly starts highlighting other players on the map, including those behind walls. This is called a “wall hack” and is essentially a cheat that allows hackers to see their opponents through obstacles in the game.
Before that, a window will briefly appear on the screen with what appears to be a menu of tools to enable a cheat titled “TSM HALAL HOOK”.
A screenshot of a cheat mode window that suddenly appears in a competitive Apex Legends game.
At the same time, the game's chatbot displays a message that appears to be from the hacker: “Apex Hacking Global Series, by Destroyer2009 &R4andom.”
In another match, something similar happened to another competitive Apex Legends player, ImperialHal. Someone who also posted the sequence to the X account.
“I'm cheating, I'm cheating, I'm cheating, I'm fucking cheating,” said Imperial Hal. “We've got an aimbot!” ImperialHal reiterated, a common cheat that allows players to automatically aim at enemies, essentially allowing them to attack without aiming at enemies or other players. I mentioned the method. “What if I don't shoot? What if I don't shoot?”
In response to these hacks, tournament organizers announced the suspension and postponement of the tournament.
“We have made the decision to postpone because the competitiveness of this series has been compromised. [North America] It's the finals at this point. We will share more information in the near future. ” Announcing the official Apex Legends Esports account on X.
At this time, it is unclear exactly what happened. Electronic Arts, the publisher of Apex Legends, did not immediately respond to an email from TechCrunch requesting comment. The same was true for Genburten and Imperial Hull.
On Monday, Easy Anti-Cheat, the maker of anti-cheat systems for games such as Apex Legends, denied the possibility of a remote code execution (RCE) bug in its anti-cheat systems. RCE is a security flaw that allows a remote hacker to execute malicious code on a targeted device.
“We have investigated recent reports of potential RCE issues within Easy Anti-Cheat. At this time, we are confident that no RCE vulnerabilities are being exploited within the EAC. Follow-up support as required. We will continue to work closely with our partners regarding this,” the official Easy Anti-Cheat account said. Posted in X.