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The world of esports has grown tremendously over the last few years, and streams and live events have aided in that process. That also means that there is a potential for things to go wrong, and that was seen at the Apex Legends Global Series Regional Final on Monday.
Hackers were able to interfere with a live match, and it didn’t take long before the action was completely shut down. EA is the publisher of this game, and it announced that the Regional Final would be postponed, and that includes all future events.
That is going to bring about even more questions as the Regional Finals help determine what teams advance to the playoffs. While that might be a concern for some players and teams, developers are trying to figure out how this happened, and how to prevent it from happening again.
No Immediate Leads
Those that were responsible for the hack went to the message boards and game lobby and acknowledged that they had hacked the servers. There are still no leads as to who is responsible for this act, but there are many working behind the scenes to figure it out.
While some hackers attempt to completely shut down game play, these hackers were actually making it easier for some players. Two different players had cheat codes pop up on their screen, and they immediately notified their opponents and league officials.
DarkZero and TSM both had players that received the cheat codes without their knowledge, and they were actually competing in completely different matchups. The ALGS didn’t take long to release a statement in which they acknowledged that the competitive integrity of the series had been compromised by these attacks.
More information is expected to come out in the future, but the league wants to make sure that there won’t be any future issues. Finding out who is responsible for the attacks would be a massive step, but that hasn’t happened yet.
Not a Theme
There have been other instances of hackers attacking live streams of a matchup, but most of them have been on a much smaller scale. What makes this more of a concern is that betting odds were set for these matchups, and that impacts how bookmakers set the odds, and receive wagers.
The Korean League of Legends League, or the LCK, has had similar issues in the past. That league was forced to show the matchups on a tape delay to keep hackers out of the action, and some games had to be played without an audience.
This is a massive blow for the Apex Legends developers, as this esports game has been on the rise over the last few years. The 2023 championship event of this game set a record for number of viewers, and that attention could be why it was recently targeted by hackers.
It’s likely that this event is going to be resumed at some point in the near future, but there are still plenty of big matchups that need to be played.
Split 1 Playoffs in LA
The 2024 Split 1 Playoffs are going to be taking place in Los Angeles, and that action will be held from May 2nd through May 5th. There will be 40 teams from across the world that qualfiy for this event, and 12 of those teams are going to come from the United States.
That’s why this event needs to be finished as it is going to determine what teams are able to advance to compete in Los Angeles. The Galen Center will be the host, and teams will be competing for a big prize pool and also valuable points.