Respawn Entertainment has sent a strong message to unsavory Apex Legends players with its latest ban wave announcement.
Connor Ford, a member of the battle royale’s anti-cheating security team, confirmed in a recent post over on Twitter that more than 400 top performing participants in the Apex Games have been barred from competing, following the discovery of a nasty exploit. According to Ford, 419 people placed in Diamond (the second-highest rank behind Apex Predator, which less than 1% are able to reach) or higher have been stripped of their right to continue playing, and for good reason. While specifics aren’t shared, it appears as if the offending action which ultimately prompted the developer to serve justice involved abuse of Ranked mode’s built-in matchmaking algorithm.
Those who resorted to using the cheat were able to match against players in the lowest bracket (Bronze), essentially allowing them to farm the required points to progress by eliminating less skilled opponents.
The welcome development comes just hours after the successful launch of Season 7 earlier today, a timing which was no doubt intentional, given Ford’s deliciously sarcastic comment: “Enjoy watching Season 7 from the sidelines.”
Brief as it is, the announcement doesn’t specify whether these bans are temporary or permanent, though precedent leads us to believe the latter is accurate. Hundreds of thousands of cheaters have been banned from entering Kings Canyon since 2019, often times for offenses considerably less harmful than the above, so we’d be surprised to learn that any have received second chances.
On a lighter note, Apex Legends‘ latest season, Ascension, is now live across all platforms and introduces a brand new map, Olympus, alongside new character Horizon. See here for all the details.
