EU Ranked matches through USA
Reddit wouldn't let me create a standalone post, so I’m putting this here because I’m at my wits' end. For over a year, I’ve been struggling with unplayable latency, and it feels like shouting into a void.
I’m located in Moldova, using IDC (InterDnestrCom). I have a gigabit fiber connection with brand new infrastructure. My local latency and tracing to the European gateway are flawless: 1-2ms locally, jumping to 10-12ms, and hitting the European backbone at 40ms.
Until early 2025, I had "shooter-perfect" ping. In CS and every other competitive title, my average across Europe remains 40-50ms. But since the start of 2025, my Apex ping essentially doubled, and the stability vanished.
I’m 35. I’ve never used Wi-Fi for gaming in my life. I’ve spent months haunting forums and harassing my ISP, only to be told to "restart the modem" or "plug in an Ethernet cable."
I’ve started monitoring my actual match traffic. Despite playing on EU servers, I’m seeing massive UDP packet spikes routing through the USA. Meanwhile, the in-game overlay smugly tells me: "Hey man, you're at 50-70ms, everything is fine." It’s like the game thinks that as long as my handoff point is in Bucharest or Poland, the laws of physics don't apply to where the packets go afterward. It feels like the netcode is just dumping data into the void.
It is physically impossible to play high-tier Apex like this:
Prediction Error icons pop up every time I spam movement. Popping a battery or medkit? Prediction Error. Playing Valkyrie and using the jetpack? Constant Prediction Error and jitter.
The worst part isn't even the lag — it's the lack of accountability.
EA Forums: Staff just drink coffee and copy-paste "reboot your router" scripts. Steam: One "altruist" moderator says they're "passing it to the team," and then nothing happens.
Ever since the infrastructure shifted more heavily toward AWS instances and specific routing hubs, a huge portion of the player base in Eastern Europe has been left behind. We have the hardware, we have the fiber, but the game simply refuses to route us correctly.
Is anyone else in the Balkans/CIS region seeing this specific "phantom ping" and constant Prediction Error despite having a "good" connection on paper?
