I have searched for solutions and I haven’t seen anything relating to my circumstances, unfortunately, so posting to see if there is anybody with similar experience.
I play Apex with my friends online, and I don’t cheat in this game or any other game. Comments baselessly calling me a cheater don’t add anything here.
I live in China and use a “speed booster” to get better connection speed (called a 加速器) when playing online games. It’s essentially a VPN for games only which allows faster passage through the “great firewall.” I have been using my speed booster for this game and other games for years and never had a problem. I also typically use a VPN on my computer for work purposes (and to watch Youtube).
I purchased the battle pass for Apex in season 3 because I love the game and want to support the developers. I was banned the next day. EA claims I have violated terms of service. I received a refund for the battle pass, at least, but I want to play the game with my friends (who are all in China and use the same or similar setups).
I tried making a new account and I am unable to even register. Reinstalled Origin and can’t log in or register. I can’t even do this on the website! I have an older account with a different email, which I’m able to log in using my friend’s laptop (and play), but I can’t log in on my own PC.
Has my PC itself been banned? Is there some way to fix this (without wiping my computer)? EA customer service has NOT been helpful at this point so I’m starting to feel a little desperate. Thanks in advance.
I’m not totally sure, but your VPN might be the problem. Have you tried it without it?
I do recall customers having lots of trouble with VPN software in China.
First of all I would recommend you reach out to EA to see if they can advise what part of the terms of service you broke https://tos.ea.com/legalapp/WEBTERMS/US/en/PC/
VPN software is not something that is specifically listed, however there is this clause:
Use an EA Service in a country in which EA is prohibited from offering such services under applicable export control laws.
which might be the problem if you say that Origin is not allowed in mainland China.
If all your accounts used on that device are being banned then it indicates a HWID ban which means that your device was purposefully targeted for the ban, meaning that someone else using your account is not likely (unless the VPN somehow played a hand in it and EA saw your device used last during the time of the ban). There is a possibility that you have some kind of software that while not used to cheat, might be interfering with how the game or Origin works., but if you already have a HWID ban, removing it will not change this. However you might try doing a clean reinstall of the device to see if it’s just preventing you from playing while such software is found running.
Have you alt f4’d out or ranked matches recently, they just dropped the ban hammer on a bunch of accounts for that.
After reading this i felt bad on dissing on china player.
You are living in China, so you need to be careful, they’re focusing on your country because on the hackers & cheats, wish the ban remove
Normally VPN is needed for the initial Origin login, but you can play with or without it on. The speed booster just helps your connection and lowers ping from 100+ to sub 20.
It looks like EA Origin may or may not be legal in China Mainland itself and I’ll have to go through EA’s Hong Kong support? There’s nothing very clear out there on these things, though.
Thanks for the detailed post. Really appreciate it.
I’ve tried asking for details from EA help but their support is quite faceless. My initial contact with them was great, actually, as I was in a webchat with support within 5 minutes, but after my account was officially flagged as suspended/banned I have not had anything beyond automated email responses.
Assuming HWID = hardware ID? I have reinstalled Origin but no luck there. When you say clean reinstall are you referring to a reinstall of my hardware’s OS? Because that would be a huge pain.
No, I can count the times I’ve exited a match early on one hand… I typically stick it out with my team until the end.
Thanks for the reply.
Before the ban, the past few months have seen a huge decrease in hackers, at least in the region I play in. I hope that EA is able to accomplish this without simply banning everybody.
Yeah, sorry. I’m not entirely sure about the internet situation in China. I just heard it’s very restrictive and VPN especially causes a lot of problems there sometimes…
Yes, HWID is a hardware ID ban. If that is the case, then only a new device or spoofing the HWID are potential ways to go around it.
By clean re-install I mean the full OS, complete wipe, however that is more of a last ditch effort in case you have some kind of software that is causing EasyAnticheat to block you from joining games. A clean re-install would mean you have no software on your OS other than Origin and Apex Legends.
The problem with this approach are that we do not know if it’s just an active measure (only blocking you while the process is running and not a permenant HWID ban). I have not had to communicate with EA support much myself, but when I did I remember it was via phonecall where I registered for a call-back and they called me. Generally speaking you might have more luck with some form of live support than a ticket or an email as those generally are high traffic and tend to get a template response (I work as IT for a call centre in Europe, so I have observed plenty of policies and rules agents have to follow)
Alrighty. Just thought I’d throw it out there due to the timing. Good luck with everything, hope you’re back out there before too long.
Thank you, sir, appreciate your help.