Notorious Apex Legends ALGS hacker returns by invading ImperalHal & Mande’s lobbies

Destroyer2009, the individual who hacked pro Apex Legends players during an ALGS match, has returned at the tail end of Season 20 by invading streamer Mikkel ‘Mande’ Hestbek and Phillip ‘ImperialHal’ Dosen’s ranked lobbies.

Mande loaded into the final day of Apex Legends Season 20 to boost his final ranked placement on stream on May 7. His stream was later invaded by notorious Apex Legends hacker Destroyer2009, who took over Mande’s ranked lobbies.

The hacker matched with Mande and his duo partner and quickly took over the lobby with bot accounts all under the same Russian text name. The lobby appeared to be a kill farm match, in which one player eliminates dozens of bots to boost their ranked placement.

Mande asked in the game’s voice chat if this was the famed ALGS hacker and Destroyer2009 eventually hopped into voice chat for a second to say hello to the streamer.

The hacker matched with Mande for only a few games, letting the streamer kill bots or attacking him with a horde.

The hacker then went into ImperialHal’s stream by joining his Apex lobby and using the old account the player had to give up after he was hacked during the ALGS match. He asked to play ranked with ImperialHal, and the TSM captain said all he wanted was some “peace” following his team’s ALGS LAN defeat.

This is not the first time Destroyer2009 has created bot armies to attack streamers and pro players in ranked matches.

This new set of bot lobby hacks comes in the wake of Respawn and EA continuing to deal with vulnerabilities in Apex Legends. After the ALGS hack, the Destroyer2009 told TechCrunch that he does it “just for fun.”

Respawn has tried to shore up its defenses against cyber attacks, even detailing an anti-cheat update in its Season 21 patch notes. Players and streamers will have to wait and see if the update will make a difference or if Apex Legends will continue to be plagued by hackers.