In an unexpected twist that could be mistaken for a plot of a cyber-thriller, the Apex Legends Global Series was thrown into disarray when two prominent streamers were hacked live during the North America regional finals. The competitive world of esports was rocked as Noyan “Genburten” Ozkose and Phillip “ImperialHal” Dosen found their PCs compromised with aimbot and wallhack cheats, respectively.
The incident unfolded dramatically, with Genburten discovering mid-match that he could see opponents through walls—a blatant cheat. A Twitch clip captured the moment, including a chat spam with the message “Apex hacking global series by Destroyer2009 & R4ndom,” as Genburten exclaimed, “I can see everyone!” before responsibly exiting the game. The hack on ImperialHal followed shortly, with him vocalizing, “I have aimbot right now!” and then, “I can’t shoot.” Despite his efforts to continue, the integrity of the match was irreparably damaged, leading to its abandonment.
These hacks had rapid and serious consequences. The existence of an RCE (Remote Code Execution) exploit in Apex Legends was brought to light via a public service announcement by the Anti-Cheat Police Department, a team of volunteers committed to stopping in-game cheating. The unnerving recommendation, “I would advise against playing any games protected by EAC or any EA titles,” could result from the exploit being distributed via the game or its anti-cheat system.
For the players in the tournament, the advice was even more dire. Urging them to change their Discord passwords, secure their emails, enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on all accounts, and perform a clean operating system reinstall, the message was clear: take no chances with personal information as PCs may have been exposed to rootkits or other malicious software.
The remainder of the series has been postponed due to the impact from this hacking incident, with the official Twitter account stating that the event’s competitive integrity has been compromised. Although there is still hope for a resolution given the pledge to release additional details shortly, the tournament’s reputation has already suffered.
This hack is a clear reminder of how susceptible online gaming platforms are and how hard it is to stop those who try to sabotage the spirit of fair competition. The issue still stands as the esports community recovers from this setback: what does this indicate for the security of online competitive gaming, and how may such breaches be avoided in the future?
As the gaming community awaits further details about the future of the Apex Legends Global Series, many issues remain unanswered. Without a doubt, maintaining the integrity of esport is essential, and everyone engaged must work tirelessly to protect it from those who would use technology to obtain an unfair advantage.
