A cruel Apex Legends bug is dropping players into matches alone

A particularly mean Apex Legends bug is mistakenly dropping players into trios, duos, and even Arena matches without any teammates when the "Fill Teammates" box is checked before matchmaking. After three drops into Olympus all by my lonesome, I'm starting to think the game hates me.

Respawn is aware of the issue, though no word yet on when a fix will be deployed. Responding to a Reddit post about the bug's persistence, Respawn comms director Ryan Rigley expressed frustration that it's still popping up following planned fixes. 

"God I hate this bug. We shipped some fixes with the season update that we thought would get it. Just gonna have to take another shot at it."

Players first started experiencing accidental solo drops not long after the "Fill Teammates" button was introduced in March's Chaos Theory event update. Affected players have a lot of theories about what is causing the bug and how it might be avoided, but even reports from those who have repeatedly encountered the bug since March aren't very consistent.

For instance, Reddit user Uncredited1's experience is all over the place, but does seem to happen on a cycle. "I only play trios. The first three or four games, I am alone or with one teammate. After that, I get a full squad for about five or six games. Then the cycle repeats. It fluctuates, good days and bad, but it does not seem to matter what time of day it is."

Until a solution is finally found, we're pretty much out of luck. What makes the squad fill bug so frustrating is that you can't notice it's happening early and then back out of matchmaking. You only know that you've been hit with it once matchmaking has run its course, all players have loaded in, and you're finally greeted with a lonely character select screen.

On the bright side, this is the perfect opportunity for me to drop into hot zones with nothing to lose and finally get good at Apex's shooting.