Account banned for Competitive Advantage — timeline and details

Dear EA team,

I am posting here to document my case and ask if anyone has experienced something similar (I know alot of you have). My Apex account was permanently banned for "Gameplay Enhancements" and I did not recieve the notice via Email, I figured it out after I opened Apex. I have already appealed 9 times with same response that the ban was correctly applied.

Since the appeal process appears to be complete, I am documenting the timeline and details here for transparency. 

First - I deny all claims that I cheated, neither software or hardware. I literally bought the Battle pass a week prior to my ban.

I have been playing Apex on and off seasons since 2018, I am not a competitive player - I usually play after my wokr and during weekends. My overall KDR is 0.6 (roughly) and for this season it was (1.2-1.5) since I could practice in the new Wildcard event which significantly improved my gameplay however still not a huge improvement. For me Apex is more like jump, die and repeat but I sometimes down other people and I enjoy it. This is how I play and I don't care if I die or down a couple players. In my Entire career I probably have won 30~50ish matches overall probably 2% win rate.

In my appeals I tried to provide details of all the softwares that I used on my Legion Laptop which I'd also mention here:
- ThrottleStop: I used this to cap my processor's frequency to 37, this was the sweet spot for me and I have used it for years to get stable 120 FPS
- Nord VPN: Nothing fancy, I didn't connect to it on PC but it was installed
- Tailscale VPN: For my home network (I built a Pi server last year for private cloud storgae)
- Razer Deathadder v2 Mouse along with Razer Synapse: For mouse settings (I bought the new razer mouse on January 16th 2026)
- Game Mods on R.E.P.O Game - I had recently installed mods for REPO (horror game on steam) I'd rule this out cause my friend and I played this together. 

Something I didn't mention in my appeals as I didn't remember:
- Windows Linux WSL platform: Lets you run Linux on windows, I used it to access my EXT4 drives I setup for pi
- PowerA Controller: I often use it to play Cult of the Lamb with my BFF in Coop, it has never been used with Apex.

This is what my ban says 

I downloaded my data for my EA account and this is what it looks like:

As you can see this is a direct ban, no Anti cheat triggers. I saw someone shared their account data on a thread I created on Steam and it looks different + My account data says I am on Playstation? Dude I am on steam

https://steamcommunity.com/app/1172470/discussions/0/760681630846394315/?tscn=1773213299

In my account data it also mentions "Competitive Advantage" - Idk what anti cheat was smoking but I don't think I have ever even hit Diamond.

I have been actively supporting the game. I am a Wattson main, and I had purchased her Heirloom and recently her prestige skin. Attaching my contribution to Apex so far, I am no cheater I care about this game very much.

Also Apex is the only FPS game I have honestly enjoyed since the launch of BR Genre. This is what my Steam looks like: 803 hours on steam, may be 100 hours on Origin. The only reason I switched to steam was because I couldn't make purchases on Origin so I am pretty pissed this happened to me.

(RANT)
I don't have a social media following but that doesn't mean I should be treated differently. I have been tracking people on twitter who got their account unbanned but only because their tweets got enough views. If these people have had the same type of ban, and initially their appeals were denied then what chance do I have?

This is what Iaroslav had to say about my ban: 3 million views? just to get my legit account back?

I think the recent XIM update has messed up the Anti Cheat. It is triggering bans left right and centre for legit players as well. There is a thread on Apex Bug Forum please give it a read 

https://forums.ea.com/idea/apex-legends-bug-reports-en/bans-caused-by-false-anti-cheat-flags-while-having-connection-issues-to-servers/13127800

And it actually lines up with my case cause this is how my last couple of matches look like on my Account data - Random disconnection by user errors but I didn't get out of the matches I remember I just had really bad loss like 50.

So is it just streamers and high profile player that deserve attention? Casual players don't have any importance? I know Apex has a huge cheater problem but I could never tell cause I am not that skilled. 

Also to EA community members - I am aware you guys can't do anything, I just wanted to put my case forward in hopes that someone would actually check what is causing this issue. All I want is to get my account back as I didn't cheat. I am no lowlife who has nothing better to do but ruin other people's day using hacks. I like the game, I like the characters, I feel nice playing it and this is an Unfair ban.

Link to bug thread: Click Me 

This thread alot more people complaining about the same issue, all seem to have the same "Gameplay Enhancement Ban"

Thank you if you read,
Aki