With the launch of the second season of Apex Legends a problem has been growing; cheating.

Now, Respawn Entertainment is rolling out their plans to combat the constantly growing issue that is on a rise in Season 2.

Here are the details, via a new blog post from Respawn:

DEV TRACKER

The dev tracker was updated this week to include new issues reported that we’re tracking. Reminder that this tracker does not account for all the things currently being worked on and meant to provide visibility into some of the larger issues that we’re aware of and investigating or fixing.

We are currently working on the next client patch that is planned to go live next week. We’ll update then with status and patch notes.

Check out the dev tracker here.

CODE: LEAF/NET

First some context as to what these errors mean:

• code:leaf – the server never answered us when we asked it if we could connect
• code:net – we were on a server and it disappeared on us and stopped answering

Back at launch we had a few different things that would display an overly generic timeout error, and the problem was that it could mean 4 different things (only one of which was a true timeout). So we added 4 different error strings and put random words in each one so that we could differentiate them both at the customer support level and also on our error tracking backends.

In our 1.2 patch, users started getting this more often. The consistent report is that it happens after an extended time on the Kings Canyon load screen just after a match starts.

The vast majority of players reporting the error are getting code:leaf. This means the backend created a match, our servers successfully talked to one another, we sent users there, and the player never got an answer from that new server.

We then gathered enough data to prove that servers don’t think clients are timing out, but clients think servers are timing out. That was a strange finding. We also verified that we aren’t launching matches that are partially full – so code:leaf seems to hit every single player on that match server, not just some players.

So we’ve been investigating a lot of situations that could be causing this and working our way through theories to see what it could be and steadily eliminating possibilities. In addition to the work ongoing on our end, we’ve also been working with Multiplay and data teams to gather more telemetry.

We’ll keep you all updated on progress as we continue to work on this.

CHEATING

We know reports of cheaters, especially in Ranked, have been a hot topic so this week we also wanted to provide a little visibility into some of the work that’s been going on behind the scenes to combat cheating:

• Using machine learning to create behavior models that detect and auto ban cheaters.
• Requiring TFA in certain regions on high risk accounts.
• Improving detection that identifies and bans new spam accounts before they are used.
• Ongoing work to adapt to new cheats.
• Matchmaking that matches detected cheaters and spammers together.
• Investigating how people party up for matches. Even if you are not specifically using a cheat, partying up with cheaters is still cheating.
• Increasing resources whether that be people or tech.

As we’ve said before, the war against cheaters will be ongoing and remains a high priority for us. There will always be work to do, improvements to make, and new things to adapt to. We’d like to thank the players that have been getting involved with helping us squash cheaters over the last week whether it be submitting reports or assisting with the vetting process for suspicious behavior.

If you encounter a cheater you can report them here. If you can please try to capture video proof as well.

Understand that we are not going to discuss the details of a specific ban with players on any public forums. If you feel that you have been wrongly banned you can appeal it here.

ESPN EXP EVENT

Yesterday streamers, athletes, and celebs competed in a fun live event to raise money for The V Foundation. The players put on a great show and if you didn’t get a chance to watch the livestream last night you can check out the VOD here.

TWITCH PRIME LOOT

Starting today you can grab the next skin in the roster by linking your Twitch Prime account here. This time it’s Bangalore rocking the Dino Dynamo rare skin. And don’t forget to grab Wattson L-Star skins as well if you haven’t yet.

Claim the skins here. https://twitch.amazon.com/prime/loot/apexlegends/?ref_=SM_OM_APEX2_2019_CRWN

PATCH NEXT WEEK

We are currently working to release a client patch next week and will discuss the details of the fixes coming with it in the patch notes then.