Fortnite Team Disqualified From FNCS Following Offensive Tweet
They say that if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all. It's this mantra that should've adopted by a pro-Fortnite team after one of its players tagged Epic Games Worldwide Creative Director, Donald Mustard, in an offensive tweet. When it comes to the professional circuit, Fortnite is up there with League of Legends and Call of Duty in terms of prize money. The latest Fortnite Champion Series has a mouth-watering $3 million cash prize, however, at least one team is missing out.
The FNCS is about as big as they come, and despite complaints Epic has scaled back its prize money in 2021, the $3 million hopes to prove critics wrong. With competitive play being so badly disrupted by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the return to form has come with a much stricter Epic Games to also help clamp down on accusations of cheating. Still, disqualifying a team over an offensive rant at the company's boss is a new one for us.
Why was the FNCS team disqualified?
Posting on Twitter, a 16-year-old player known as Wrigley wrote, "Like literally fucking k!ll your$elf @DonaldMustard". What sparked the outburst against the Epic boss is currently unknown, but whatever Wrigley's beef was, it's cost his team a place in the FNCS. Alongside players Dictate and Userz, the team was taking part in the NA East heats of the tourney, and they'd just finished their sixth match. Unfortunately for Wrigley and his teammates, this is where their story ends.
Even though Wrigley's team was bottom of the rankings, it was still guaranteed to earn some money from the FNCS. All you had to do was keep it zipped. Dictate shared a response from Epic on Twitter, alongside the caption saying, "Is this a f*****g joke?". Epic's official response reads as follows: "We are writing to inform you of your team's disqualification and removal from the Chapter 2 Season 5 FNCS competition, effectively immediately. Based on an internal investigation a member of your team has violated Section 8.1.2 of the Official Rules".
The specific rule highlights being respectful toward Event Administrators, which would explain why Wrigley and co. were given the boot. Even if his teammates didn't send out tweets, they were caught in Epic's zero-tolerance stance on the matter.
Wrigley's teammates were clearly gutted by the decision but ultimately accepted their fate. Userz wrote, "I wish we could be able to have an opportunity for an emergency sub. What Wrigley did was completely out of our control". Dictate added, "Just played this whole season for $0 oh my f*****g god". They then appealed to Mustard's better nature and added, "Can I at least have my $600 bro child support ain't cheap @DonaldMustard". Despite the trio's low position, there was $690K on the line for first place, which they'll now have to forfeit.
When the players first shared the news they'd been disqualified, fandom clapped back and accused Epic of being "snowflakes", however, after Wrigley's tweet emerged, it soon became clear what had happened. Despite this year's FNCS pool being down $2 million on last year's $5 million, it's important to note the total FNCS prize pool for 2021 is $20 million and is actually up on last year's $17 million. Either way, Wrigley, Userz, and Dictate won't be having a slice of the pay. Here's hoping it's a lesson learned.
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Images via Epic Games
