Why are players asking Respawn to save Apex ranked?
The competitive mode is filled with cheaters and players are begging Respawn to take action. The #SaveApexRanked movement sprung to life on social media yesterday and became a trending topic overnight. Numerous high-profile pros and streamers backed the hashtag alongside their pleas for Respawn to take meaningful action against the rampant cheating in Apex Legends competitive mode. Although the hashtag is new, the demands for better anti-cheating measures are nearly as old as Apex itself. The #SaveApexRanked movement combines the voice of players who feel that Respawns initiatives to combat hackers are insufficient. NRGs Chris sweetdreams Sexton ignited the movement with a TwitLonger post called Empty Promises and False Hope on June 28. The pro went over the rampant cheating issue in the battle royalewhich, according to him, isnt restricted to any region and has been going on for several months. The movement is a reaction to a tweet by Respawn that promised a few measures to crack down on cheating in the game, including hiring more personnel to help with manual bans and developing tools to improve detection of cheats and DDoS attacks. Dont let Respawns tweet about intentions to help ranked fool you, Sweet wrote in response. We have heard these [things] multiple times in the past with NO results.  High-profile pros and content creators adopted the hashtag to share their own frustrations with the way Respawn has implemented anti-cheating measures. Alliances John Hakis Hkansson wrote that Ranked has been unplayable for too long and that we need actions not words. NRG streamer Tanner Rogue Trebb said that cheaters and DDoSing control the entirety of my career, my goals within the game, and the ability to even stream.  The hashtag made it to Twitters trending topics overnight, a display of widespread dissatisfaction with Respawns insufficient efforts to curb cheating. Respawn director of comms Ryan Rigney acknowledged that Sweetdreams had some very valid complaints. Weve gotta crack down on the cheating and make real progress, he wrote. Actions are needed, not just words.  Some adopters criticized the response, however, citing Respawns perceived inability to obtain meaningful results despite months of efforts. You cant be upset at wording when all efforts to prevent cheating have come up short, Snip3down responded. The #SaveApexRanked movement is the culmination of months worth of dissatisfaction and frustration with Respawns insufficient measures to combat cheating. Hackers are hardly a new addition to Apex, but the situation seems to have deteriorated in the recent months with a series of ordeals chipping away at pros and streamers tolerance. A brief history of Apexs cheating problems  Sweetdreams TwitLonger (and the closest thing to a manifesto for the #SaveApexRanked movement) mentions that this is about the 8th or 9th consecutive month of cheating and [DDoSing] being the main issue on the ranked ladder. There are a series of perpetrators, but arguably none of them are as infamous as the hacker known as Tufi.  Tufi would purposefully cross paths with several streamers and disrupt their games with the use of cheats and DDoS attacks. The hacker was allegedly involved with a DDoS attack that stopped a GLL tournament in April. Tufi terrorized the ranked scene for months. His consistent efforts to throw a wrench into the works of competitive matches earned him the ill repute of the God of Apex because he was nearly unstoppable. Respawn and EA have reportedly engaged in legal action against Tufi, according to Roguehes currently dealing with legal shit and Ill keep it at that, he wrote. At the time, Dot Esports reached out to Respawn, who declined to comment based on an inability to comment on legal action. Tufi was hardly the only individual involved in disrupting ranked gameplay, though. Hackers, according to sweetdreams, will queue up into matches and use cheats to win the gameor take out the entire server with a DDoS attack if they die. The persistence of the problem helps brew frustration among those who grind ranked and that feeling is compounded by Respawns perceived inactivity or inability to fix the situation. Nokokopuffs wrote in April that there were months worth of proof of cheaters with no word/post or acknowledgment of the matter on Respawns end. At the time, Rigney replied that Respawn was trying every avenue (technical, legal, etc.) right now to see what we can do to fix it.  The #SaveApexRanked movement gained the spotlight overnight and almost instantly, but the conditions that led to its creationa rampant cheating problem and a perceived inability by Respawn to handle ithave been brewing for months.