Apex Legends Upholds Decision to Ban Player Amidst Uproar in the Community

Blatant hackers ruining matches for players is an issue that many popular games on the market have in common. Coming across cheaters is perhaps the most frustrating experience in any game. A controversy recently unfolded in the Apex Legends community, resulting in players receiving bans, streamers receiving borderline death threats, and Respawn standing firmly by their bans.

It all started when a cheating Gibraltar effortlessly wiped out Twitch streamer LuluLuvely and her squad. She reported the incident to Respawn dev Conor “Hideouts” Ford, submitting a clip. Subsequently, the hacking player got banned after a while; however, they weren’t the only one to get banned.

In a Reddit post titled, ‘Killing streamers got me banned,’ KongoBoom claimed the Respawn dev also banned their Apex Legends account. The Bloodhound player initially explained their innocence, stating that they were solo queueing and ended up in the hacker’s squad. It was their Gibraltar teammate who was hacking and wiped out a full squad of Twitch streamers. The original post gained huge traction and ended up getting locked, removed, and updated.

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Apex Legends player claims innocence after Respawn bans account

How did all that happen? Well, it sparked a controversy in the Apex community, with people holding contrasting opinions. Some accused Respawn of not investigating the clip properly, mishandling bans, and showing favoritism towards certain streamers. Others pointed out that Hideouts manually drops the ban hammer on plenty of blatant cheaters in Apex and might have made a simple error.

LuluLuvely later apologized to the player in a now-deleted tweet, saying she had forwarded the Reddit thread to the right parties to help lift the player’s ban. The whole situation stirred up the entire community, with the streamer and Respawn both drawing criticism.

With the commotion escalating, Respawn stepped in to clear the air after investigating the situation. Based on its findings, the studio stands by its decision.

“Regarding today’s Reddit thread from a banned Bloodhound player,” Apex Legends’ Twitter wrote, “BH appeared to have multiple other banned accounts, BH has a history of attempting to evade bans, BH was partied with the cheating Gibraltar. We stand by the ban.”

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Respawn standing by their decision resolves the situation

Following Respawn’s revelation, LuluLuvely responded to those who sent her “borderline death threats” because of the Reddit post claiming innocence.

The Twitch streamer reiterated that she only sent in a clip of the cheating Gibraltar player. She never accused KongoBoom of cheating, meaning she was not at fault for the player getting banned. Respawn decided to enforce the account suspension on the Bloodhound player based on their findings.

Meanwhile, Hideouts, the Respawn dev, said, “We thoroughly investigate all players before a ban and make sure all avenues are explored before proceeding.”

While the original post ended up getting deleted, KongoBoom updated it with a final statement. The player stood by LuluLuvely and said people who sent her death threats need counseling.

“I did not expect that it would get this far, that people would threaten to kill for the sake of a game. This is just a game, and we get upset sometimes, but it’s still a game. I don’t want my account to get unbanned anymore if this will cause murder.“

The parties involved appear to have finally resolved the uneasy situation. While it seemed to get out of control initially, Respawn standing by their decision has soothed the community’s uproar. Meanwhile, Apex Legends players can report their encounters with hackers at Respawn’s Cheater Report Discord channel.