Cheaters Run Amok In Week Two of the FNCS. How Can Epic Games Stop Them?
The competitive Fortnite drama continues. Week One of the Fortnite Champion Series saw an instance of multiple top pros colluding. Now, in week two, further allegations of cheating have arisen.
The first case involves a former Ghost Gaming member, Assault. While streaming Game Four of the NA East FNCS Finals, Assault appears to implicate himself in an act of stream sniping.
He calls out information to his duo partner involving two other players, Innocents and Ajerrs. Assault mentions that Ajerrs was the player that just died and relays Innocents’ exact material count.
It would be impossible to know this information through normal gameplay. The only explanation is that Assault was watching his opponent’s streams.
Assault’s Response
Assault took to Twitter shortly after to deny the allegations. In a since-deleted tweet, he wrote;
“Anybody who thinks I would stream snipe a homie is mad weird. Never once in the tourney did we even encounter each other. Tweet whatever you want to tweet, Ik I’m not a cheater. and who would be dumb enough to cheat after four 60 day bans.”
From an outside perspective, the evidence pretty clearly shows that Assault violated the rules. The Fortnite Champion Series ruleset states:
“Receiving outside assistance regarding the location of other players, other players’ health or equipment, or any other information not otherwise known to the player by the information on his or her own screen (e.g., looking at or attempting to look at spectator monitors while currently in a match).”
Assault could not have possibly known Innocents’ exact material count if he was not receiving outside assistance. However, Assault believes that he did nothing wrong because the information he learned did not affect the match. Innocents and Ajerr went on to win the Week Two tournament.
The 60-day bans Assault is referring to were handed out last week. In Week One, Kreo, Bucke, Slacke and Keys were found colluding together to avoid Storm Surge. Their punishment included disqualification and a 60-day ban.
It is yet to be seen how Epic Games will handle this particular case. They took swift action last week — but as we have discussed before on GGRecon — Epic Games has been extremely inconsistent in the way in which they punish Fortnite players.
UnknownArmy Abuses Stream Chat
In another Week Two match, revered controller player, UnknownArmy, appears to be receiving guidance from his stream chat. First, Unknown learns through chat that his team is being contested at Slurpy Swamps. Unknown then glances at his chat and calls out that one of the enemy players has been downed by fall damage. Unknown instantly rushes to finish the player, even admitting to his duo that his chat told him the enemy is knocked.
This incident comes shortly after Tfue and Chap claimed that “everyone that lands at Slurpy pretty much cheats.”
Three Cases of Rule Violations in Two Weeks
The often criticized competitive Fortnite community is taking a lot of heat in recent weeks. On top of the drama outside the game, cheating has become rampant. Cheating has been around since the beginning of competitive Fortnite but it’s starting to emerge as prevalently as ever.
Fortnite caster and analyst, Ballatw, put into words how many in the community feel. The players participating in these scandals are ruining competitive Fortnite’s reputation.
With a game like Fortnite, cheating isn't always black and white. Cheating comes in forms outside of aimbot and blatant teaming. These three cases all have notable differences but one thing remains the same; players are gaining unfair advantages through nontraditional methods.
- Read More - Every Vaulted Cosmetic in Fortnite
So How Do You Stop the Cheating?
The FNCS tournaments are all held exclusively online. This makes stopping and catching cheaters exceptionally difficult. Star players like Bugha have been quoted suspecting that up to 50% of competitors cheat via stream sniping. Catching these cheaters is near impossible. Unless a player slips up and admits to it (Assault), we will never know if they are receiving outside information. However, there are a few tactics that could work to minimize these forms of cheating.
The two best methods to prevent stream sniping and collusion in these tournaments are:
- Require every competitor to stream
- Force everyone streaming to implement at least a two-minute delay on their stream
If everyone is streaming, they will be far more inclined not to cheat. It is much harder to cheat when you have people watching you. Also, all of their actions are documented. Assault would have never been caught admitting to knowing Innocents’ team’s status if his duo partner was not streaming.
Back in the early stages of competitive Fortnite (Friday Fortnite) mandatory stream delays were a standard. The Friday Fortnite organizers knew how easy it would be to cheat in these tournaments. A stream delay ensures that anyone trying to stream snipe receives outdated information. By the time something is witnessed on stream, the real-time game has changed dramatically.
Top names in the Fortnite community have supported these two ideas and were met with positive reception.
While cheating may never go away, it can be minimized and made more difficult to pull off successfully. As things stand, cheaters will continue to frolic.
Images via Epic Games
