Cheaters tend to be a recurring problem with any game with dedicated online multiplayer. Activision, for example, has had to issue multiple ban waves to clear out cheaters in Call of Duty: Warzone, and Apex Legends is unfortunately no stranger to them either. One pair of cheaters has been discovered to be using DDoS attacks to help them win matches in the game's Ranked Mode, but thankfully their "winning streak" has come to a satisfying end for those who play legitimately.
Initially spotted by Eurogamer, two videos of an Apex Legends match were shared on Reddit, showing two high-ranking players being taken out. However, as soon as it happened, the server suddenly crashed. Once players reconnected to the server, the two higher-ranked players were alive and well, with their attackers being the ones on the floor, effectively reversing the situation.
It's believed that the two had performed a DDoS attack in order to achieve this. For those unfamiliar with the term, distributed denial of service attacks are used to make a resource, like a server, unavailable to the people using it, usually by overloading it with superfluous requests. As such, it prevents all the non-cheating players from accessing the server. A similar incident happened recently, with the servers for LittleBigPlanet, which forced Sony to take them offline.
What makes this incident particularly nasty is that the two players in question are the fourth and sixth highest ranking players on the Xbox One version of the game, meaning they most likely achieved those ranks unfairly. Fortunately, this eventually caught the attention of Respawn itself and, upon reviewing the footage, it clearly agreed that a DDoS attack was performed. In the same Reddit thread, security analyst Conor Ford confirmed that the two players have been banned.
Undeniable proof that the #4 and #6 Xbox Preds are DDoSing servers after we knock them. I’m posting on Twitter for more attention but please help get this traction - Console Ranked is literally unplayable with 5 of every 6 games being DDoSed in Pred lobbies from apexlegends
These aren't the only two guilty of using DDoS attacks to win games, however. It's purportedly become quite a major problem, especially on the console versions of Apex Legends. Respawn is aware of this, though, with Ford recently promising that anyone involved with DDoSing on consoles will face a "reckoning" and that they can't hide their actions. With any luck, DDoS attacks will become a complete non-issue sooner rather than later.
Respawn isn't the only one going to great lengths to ensure cheaters don't ruin other players' fun. People Can Fly, the studio behind Outriders, shared its plans for dealing with cheaters once it launches, including outright marking them so others players can immediately discern who the cheaters are.
Apex Legends is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: Eurogamer