Apex Legends writer blasts leakers for being “selfish little twits”

[jwplayer 2r7Ix61z]Respawn Entertainment writer Tom Casiello addressed Apex Legends leakers in a passionate rant, slamming them for disseminating info on story points, character reveals, and more ahead of schedule.

Casiello explained his long history in the entertainment industry and how he’s experienced multiple forms of leakers, though they came with other names in their respective fields. As a former writer for soaps and wrestling, the Respawn talent has been through the gamut of people trying to get the scoop on projects he’s worked on.

In speaking up for his colleagues, he condemned the repeated attempts from “selfish little twits hungry for internet infamy” who try to oust plot points before they officially come out.

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“If your purpose on the Internet is to spoil and leak things to fans ahead of time, and who cares if they glance past your half-assed ‘spoiler alert’ in the first line, I have zero use for you, and you will be blocked,” he said.

The years of planning that goes into the development and execution of Apex’s storylines can be marred in seconds due to a leak that gets shared shortly before its official reveal, according to Casiello.

“The writing team works damn hard to keep a relentless schedule of reveals and plot twists and beats meticulously spread out over a week, a month, a year,” he explained. “And you ruin it for thousands of people in ten seconds, all for a lousy ‘like’ or ‘follow.’ So I want to be really direct here: I think you’re small.”

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He likened leakers to “cheaters” who cut corners in trying to be the first to reveal something new in Apex Legends. Community members chimed in and were largely in support of Casiello, although some made the distinction between the types of leaks that can come out.

“I get mad when people treat gameplay leaks the same as Lore leaks,” one user commented. “It’s not the same, gameplay leaks (new items, guns, animations) increase the hype because the whole point is playing it, but Lore leaks it’s a totally different story where the whole point is to know it.”

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There are also those who make no distinction between story and gameplay leaks since it takes away from the natural hype of a new reveal. Casiello’s remarks resonated with fans who took a similar position on leakers trying to get their hands on these kinds of spoilers.

“You’re not smart or ‘in the know’… you’re just some dude who cuts corners,” the writer wrote. “Your average cheater. And I personally think you suck.”

Respawn have attempted to combat that rampant datamining that goes on in the Apex community. One of their biggest and most successful efforts was planning a whole release for a new Legend named Forge at the start of Season 4, only to later reveal that all the info surrounding the character was fake and had been planted to throw leakers off the scent of Revenant.

Several prominent dataminers have also vowed to avoid revealing lore-related content, instead, focusing their attention mainly on stuff like new items and weapons. While there will never be a fully leak-proof environment when it comes to Apex Legends, at least there are strides being made.