Cheating, illegal agreements, unfair weapons and lifetime bans: a lot of drama has happened in the world of Fortnite over the past few years. Let’s take a look at five of the biggest scandals in the history of the popular battle royale.
FNCS: a cheater wins the event
The most recent scandal occurred in the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS), a tournament series with a prize pool of $2 million split across different regions.
In the Asian region, a Japanese player called Sekosama initially celebrated the victory. But he quickly was accused of foul play. Clips showed that he apparently made illegal agreements with an opponent, as the suspected mate purposely left him good loot.
The tweet below explains that the player called Qoo exchanged a Floppy Fish with a Medikit. From Sekosama’s point of view, it is visible that he runs straight to the Medikit – as if he knew that it was there. The Twitter user suspects that the two of them were talking to each other despite being opponents in the game.
Sekosama received a ban for 14 days and was also not awarded any prize money or the title as champion.
Jarvis receives lifetime ban for testing an aimbot
In November 2019, the now 17-year-old Jarvis Khattri from US-American multigaming organisation FaZe Clan unintentionally caused a great number of headlines. The content creator tested an aimbot for one of his YouTube videos – and received a lifetime ban from Epic Games.
While he didn’t use the cheat for a competitive game and just wanted to have some fun, he already foreshadowed in the now deleted video that he would be banned. But apparently, he still was not prepared for the wave of drama that followed. He got banned from ever playing the game again and was also prohibited from using Fortnite footage in his videos.
Jarvis uploaded a teary apology video, his mother asked Epic Games for forgiveness, Fortnite pros and content creators were divided in their opinions. Some said he knew what he was doing was illegal, others said a teenager should not receive such definite punishments.
Tfue and the mud fight with FaZe Clan
#ReleaseTheContract: it seemed like all social media platforms were flooded with this hashtag in May 2019. Fortnite superstar Turner “Tfue” Tenney caused drama when he tried to get out of his FaZe Clan contract.
Tfue set up some huge claims. Apparently, he had tried to get out of the contract for months, the organisation would have forced the then underaged player to drink alcohol and do dangerous stunts and most importantly: FaZe would have the right to take up to 80 percent of his earning.
FaZe denied all accusations and explained they have never taken any of his money, so Tfue and his fans demanded that the gaming organisation should release the contract to the public. A legal mudslinging with more contractual issues, claims and details followed. In August, the two parties filed a lawsuit against each other – results are still open.
Cheaters make it to the World Cup
Weeks before the prestigeous World Cup in 2019, two players called Xxif and Ronaldo got caught cheating during the qualifiers. They made illegal agreements with others who let themselves be intentionally killed, so Xxif and Ronaldo could receive more points. Epic Games punished the duo with a two-week ban – not long enough. Both of them still managed to qualify for the World Cup nonetheless since they were allowed to participate in other qualifier rounds.
Countless fans and Fortnite pros voiced their outrage on social media. Twitch streamer Benjamin “DrLupo” Lupo called it a “kick in the junk to the integrity of the Fortnite competitive community.”