Apex Legends Streamer Proven Not Guilty By Developers

Apex Legends developer Respawn Entertainment is coming after cheaters in the game, but it appears the Apex community might have jumped the gun when accusing one person of playing unfairly.

Dot Esports reported yesterday that a semi-professional Apex Legends player was apparently caught cheating in the game, using what some suspected to be an aimbot to automatically target enemies. That player, Otto "ottr" Boström, was streaming his gameplay on Twitch at the time, and had entered a building in the game's Artillery area when he spotted two enemies on a lower level. In the video clip here, you can see Boström shooting at one of the enemies and ultimately killing them, by all indications legitimately.

But then something strange happened. Boström's reticle quickly snapped upward, firing several bullets toward the second player on the opposing team. That other teammate fell almost instantly, and Boström, seemingly shocked by what had just occurred, made a panicked plea to those watching his stream.

"Chat, don't clip that," he said. So naturally, chat clipped that, and the video was spread around online.

Boström was reportedly banned for 40 minutes yesterday, but it seems an Apex Legends developer at Respawn stepped in to have the ban lifted, as the developer knew "the circumstances" behind what happened. Other players have also been able to reproduce what appears to be a bug in the game, causing guns to fire much as Boström's did when shooting downward in the exact same location. So what looked initially like someone using an aimbot to gain an unfair advantage in Apex Legends has turned out to be a glitch; one that just happened to greatly benefit Boström and his teammates at the time.

While this wasn't a case of it, Apex Legends does still have a swarm of cheaters to contend with. As we reported previously, the studio is looking into a number of ways to curb cheating in the game, including hiring more staff to patrol the player base, and matching cheaters up against one another to keep them out of the main player pool.