Apex Legend Pros Genburten and ImperialHal Hacked Live During ALGS NA Regional Finals

During ALGS NA League Split 1 Finals, some professionals suffered a massive setback due to a notorious hacker in the Apex Legends community getting access to the tournament's private lobby. Two prominent Apex professionals, Noyan "Genburten" Ozkose and Phillip "ImperialHal" Dosen, were hacked and given different cheats, which caused chaos and ultimately led to the event's suspension.  

Hackers Turn On Cheats On For Genburten and ImperialHal to Ruin ALGS NA Regional Finals

This hacking incident is one of the biggest in ALGS's history. A notorious hacker 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, Gentburn was also given an aimbot by the hackers.

Like most of the pro players, Genburten also live-streamed the finals when this incident happened. Distressed by what was happening in his game, he panicked and left the live match. As Genburten was hacked, his account automatically messaged the game lobby, "Apex hacking global series by Destoryer2009 &R4ndom".

Right in the next match, the hackers accessed TSM ImperialHal's account and turned on aimbot in a similar style. Hal's teammates, Reps, and Verhulst could be heard telling the pro player to leave the game. However, he insisted on trying to play on, forcing the admins to shut down the server.

Initially, it seemed like Genburnt’'s hacks didn't kill anyone. However, evidence has emerged that E8 Nelson “Zaptoh” Brangs was killed across the map. At the time, it looked like Genburten had eliminated the pro player in his sights, but further investigations revealed his arrow went off his screen and across the map.

After the incident, @AntiCheatPD immediately posted on X to spread awareness about the situation. Due to the nature of the hacking and the context, it's possible that RCE (remote code execution) was used with malware within the ALGS server. However, whether the access was through the game itself, its items, or the Easy Anti-Cheat system is still unclear.

ALGS NA Finals Postponed 

The ALGS has issued a statement announcing the suspension of the Regional Finals due to the disruption caused by the hackers. This means that the finals will need to be played later now. It’s still unclear if any played matches will count or if the event will start from scratch. 

Regardless of how the hacks were deployed, it’s a serious breach of EA and Respawn servers that quickly compromised ALGS regional competition. Many players in the community are calling to uninstall Apex Legends, as neither the developers nor the publisher have indicated that a wider player base is potentially at risk.