419 highly ranked Apex Legends players will have to sit out the rest of Season 7, following a ban wave by Respawn Entertainment. The players, ranked in Platinum (the third-highest competitive rank) or higher were found to be using an exploit that allowed them to queue into matches with Bronze-level players. In other words, they were able to farm rank by playing against the worst-rated players.
Respawn security specialist Conor Ford issued the “bye-bye” statement on Twitter yesterday:
To the 419 Diamond+ ranked players who abused an exploit allowing you get into and farm bronze lobbies for RP, enjoy watching Season 7 from the sidelines 🔨❤️
— Conor Ford / Hideouts (@RSPN_Hideouts) November 4, 2020
The bans occur across all platforms Apex Legends is on (“justice has no boundaries,” Ford said) and dishes out bans on the order of tens of thousands of minutes, or several weeks to a month.
The exploit has apparently been known about for some time, judging by this support request from July 2019. Unless Respawn finds a way to patch that out, the same glitchers will probably be back when their bans expire, so let’s not pat them on the back for a job well done just yet.
Credit: Apex Legends Hammers 419 Players Using Exploit To Play Against Lower Ranks – MMO Bomb