Cover-Credits:
On 17th March, the Apex Legends pro scene and the community was shocked to see a massive attack that affected the battle royale and its competitive integrity big time. At the Apex Legends Global Series (ALGS) North America (NA) League Split 1 Finals, some pros faced setback due to a notorious hacker in the Apex Legends community getting access to the tournament's private lobby.
Prominent players Noyan "Genburten" Ozkose and Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen were hacked and offered different cheats, which caused chaos and ultimately led to the event's suspension.
The hacker, who goes by the name Destroyer2009, sent the whole system into disarray and became the talk of the town.
What Transpired at the ALGS Regional Finals?
This hacking incident is one of the biggest in the esport title's history. Destroyer2009 and another user named R4ndom compromised the accounts of Genburten and ImperialHal during the ALGS' NA Split 1 Regional Finals.
DarkZero's Genburten was the first victim and got hit with a hack in the third game. The pro player suddenly got a UI interface on his screen and the ability to see other players in the game through walls. According to the hack interface, Genburten was also given an aimbot by the hacker. His chat window spammed a message hinting at famous Apex cheater Destroyer2009.
His account automatically messaged the game lobby, "Apex hacking global series by Destoryer2009 &R4ndom."
Following this, Team SoloMid (TSM) player ImperialHal was affected by an aimbot hack. His bullets could hit unseen targets in the distance. But ImperialHal remained in the lobby and refrained from firing his weapon. As a result, the admins had to completely shut down the server.
While it was made very clear that the person who hacked the ALGS server was Destroyer2009, the method used to do it is still unclear. The community is speculating that the hacker could have made use of a remote code execution (RCE) exploit that allows users to execute code remotely on another PC.
After the incident, @AntiCheatPD immediately posted on X to spread awareness about the situation. The Twitter account said, "Attention to all players who participated in the ALGS tournament, I strongly recommend that you take immediate measures to protect your personal information. It is advisable that you change your Discord passwords and ensure that your emails are secure. also enable MFA for all your accounts if you have not done it yet."
With the esports event thrown into disarray thanks to Destroyer2009, Electronic Arts and Respawn had to postpone it completely. Apex Legends Esports tweeted, "Due to the competitive integrity of this series being compromised, we have made the decision to postpone the NA finals at this time."
