Infamous Apex hacker reportedly chases streamer with legion of bots

The Apex Legends hacker who made esports headlines last month in the lead up to ALGS, Destroyer2009, has struck again hot on the heels of the Split 1 Playoffs, season 21’s launch, and improved security measures.

Despite promises from developer Respawn Entertainment’s attempt to improve the security and stamp down on hackers in Apex Legends, the last few days has seen one individual show there are still many exploits they can take advantage of. One of the most notable hacks saw Destroyer2009 match up with steamer Mande using more than 40 boosted accounts, allowing the creator to gun them down as they swarmed him.

Apex Legends is still being plagued by the same hacker, and content creators are their target

Screenshot by Destructoid

Earlier this week, Destroyer2009 invaded Mande’s lobby while he was streaming some Apex Legends Duos matches. He filled the lobby with bots and created what amounts to an account-boosting match. This is how someone can boost their account level by killing every other player in a match and winning the match as the last player standing.

A clip of all of these bots chasing Mande across the map was posted on Twitter, and it’s pretty funny to see. We know this was Destroyer2009 because Mande was able to talk to him soon after. As I mentioned above, there doesn’t seem to be any malicious intent here.

While Destroyer2009 is certainly making a name for himself, he’s also demonstrating that there are still exploits for hackers to use in the game. It’s also a cheeky blow to Respawn Entertainment, for this and more incidents to occur a few days into the latest season, following a series of security updates to the game’s infrastructure.

Destroyer2009 hacked two ALGS pro accounts leading up to the Split 1 Playoffs. ALGS and Respawn Entertainment understandably delayed all events until they identified the issue. The development team also mentioned to me in a preview event for season 21 that it was stepping up back-end security to prevent this sort of behavior. Clearly, those efforts didn’t solve everything.

As if Mande’s bot barrage wasn’t enough, Destroyer2009’s most impressive hack was broadcast live by TSM’s Imperial Hal. One of the two pro players who were hacked last month. Imperial Hal had just returned from the Split 1 Playoffs in LA, only to find himself matched with his old account, one Respawn Entertainment had replaced after the first hack to avoid any further attacks.

As with everything Destroyer2009 does in Apex Legends, it highlights an exploit somewhere that needs to be fixed. Although based on the chat between the hacker and Imperial Hal, I think Destroyer2009 is treading on some pretty thin ice at this point.

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