Respawn has banned more than 1,000 Apex Legends boosters who abused the system to climb up the Ranked Arenas ranked. This includes the number one Predator on Xbox who admitted to cheating just before the ban wave.
The Apex Legends teams keep their eyes on the ranked leaderboards constantly, wiping the slate with cheaters and exploit abusers when they’re uncovered.
So when the number one Ranked Arenas player in the world was outed for cheating by boosting in the 3v3 gamemode, Respawn struck.
The developers banned more than 1000 players on July 14, including “xiauh” on Xbox. The Level 2000 account boasted more than 16,000 AP at the time of their suspension.
The overall total was 1307, including 392 players on PC, 375 on Xbox, and a whopping 520 on PlayStation. 20 players were banned for exploiting in Ranked Arenas on Nintendo Switch. Of these 1307, more than half of them were in Predator — 925 to be exact.
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Ban wave of 1307 users has been dealt out for exploiting Arenas Ranked and "6-manning". Bans range from permanent to 2 weeks depending on abuse amount. Breakdown is as follows:PC-392PS-520Switch-20XB-375❤️🔨
— Conor Ford / Hideouts (@RSPN_Hideouts) July 14, 2022
Respawn calls the practice “6-manning” — essentially queuing up in three stacks at the same time to try and play against each other. Players would intentionally throw games to try and boost the ranks of the enemies who would then soar to the top of the leaderboard.
Developer Conor ‘Hideouts’ Ford confirmed players were banned for at least two weeks, with the most serious offenders getting banned for life.
This isn’t the end of Respawn’s quest to crack down on exploit abusers and cheaters in Apex Legends ranked though. Ban waves are common in the battle royale, but as long as you play fair you won’t be targeted.