Apex Legends Is Matching Cheaters and Spammers With Each Other
Giving them what they deserve: each other.
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It's a bummer to have your game ruined by someone cheating, but in Apex Legends at least, you won't be seeing that as often anymore. At least, so long as you aren't cheating.
In an update posted to the Apex Legends subreddit, Respawn discussed some of the issues it's tracking and how the team is responding. Under the subsection of "cheating," Respawn noted reports of cheaters and detailed how the team was dealing with them.
Alongside using machine learning to detect and auto-ban cheaters, as well as requiring two-factor authentication on high-risk accounts in certain regions and improved detection, the devs say they've been matchmaking cheaters and spammers together. The post also notes that even if you aren't cheating, the system will note when you've been partying up with cheaters. That counts too, you know.
As Apex Legends turns the corner into its second season, it's nice seeing updates like this. It's a system similar to the "low priority queue" in Dota 2, which pairs together players who often rage-quit games, and it works fairly well there. Hopefully this will lead to a gradual quarantine of cheaters; now all dropping onto the same islands over and over, like cheater purgatory. Beautiful.
The new season for Apex also brought penalties for those who abandon matches in ranked, so it's clear Respawn wants to clamp down on folks' intent on ruining others' experiences. Especialy in a day and age where so many games are vying for my attention, it makes me a little more likely to boot up Apex Legends if I know there's a slim-to-nil chance of running into an aimbot or rage-quitter. If you're dropping later, be sure to check out our guide to all the season two battle pass rewards and skins.