Outrage as pair of Fortnite CHEATS win £84,000 and qualify for £30m World Cup
TWO players kicked of the Fortnite World Cup for cheating have qualified for the mega-money final in New York next month.
The pair, known as XXiF and Ronaldo, were chucked out out of qualifiers for cheating in the third week but only banned for 14 days.
That meant they could return for another shot – and they qualified over the weekend in week 8 with a third-place finish in the East North America duos regionals.
The pair qualifying despite their previous cheating ban was described by fellow pros as "a kick in the junk" for tournament integrity and "a stain on what is to be the highest paying Esports event of all time".
The delinquent pair picked up $6,500 (£5,140) for their trouble, as well as booking a place in the finals where £23 million of the £30million prize pool is up for grabs and a guaranteed payout of another $50,000 (£39,500) each.
Damion 'XXiF' C. and Ronald 'Ronaldo' Mach were thrown out of the tournament six weeks ago when Epic decided that they had been working together during the every gamer for themselves Solos tournament.
Both players previously represented esports organisation Rise, but were after the bans were handed down.
Thousands of players have received bans during qualifying. In the first week alone, 1,200 cheats were found and 206 prize winners had money taken away.
XXiF's ban came after a fellow pro shared a video on Twitter a day after the event showing evidence of his collusion.
Nate Hill, a popular Fortnite pro who was hit with a two-week cheating ban last Autumn, slammed the severity of the punishment.
At the time he said that the pair had "blatantly colluded, stole thousands of dollars, lied about it, ruined any integrity in online [qualifiers] and encouraged others to team and cheat."
He was outraged by the two-week ban for the pair compared to the five-week ban given to his team-mate after he "turned himself in" after calling out the location of one of Hill's competitors during the Fall Skirmish tournament.
After the pair qualified he posted again, saying "good stuff Epic games! Love a good redemption story! Remember kids, if you break the law or cheat just wait two weeks and you’ll get $50,000!"
One prophetic Fortnite pro even predicted exactly this scenario a month ago.
Dr Lupo, another high-profile Fortnite player, described the pair as "two a**holes who don’t deserve to be [in the finals]." and said that allowing them to qualify was "a kick in the junk to the integrity of the Fortnite competitive community."
Cbass, who plays for esports giant Faze, described it as "a stain on what is to be the highest paying Esports event of all time."
It is possible that Epic could rescind the pair's to the finals as a result of the outcry, but as things stand they'll be in New York at the end of July, and will be taking back at least $50,000 in prize money, if not more.
There are ten weeks of qualifiers for the big tournament in New York that's coming up this summer, with a total of £30million up for grabs for the top Fortnite players from around the world.
A blog post from Epic revealed that most of the bans were from people trying to enter in multiple regions to boost their own chances of getting through.
Spots in the finals have been allocated for different areas across the world, with different qualifying tournaments for each of those regions.
In week one there were 19 spots in the finals available -- 8 for Europe, 8 for North America (split into East and West), and one each for Asia (excluding China), Brazil and Oceania.
To get into the qualifier proper and have a shot at qualifying for the World Cup in New York you need to place in the top 3,000 point earners for that region in the semifinals.
So as well as players in regions with fewer spots thinking they might have a better chance getting into the finals through a larger region, players in larger regions might prefer their odds of getting into the top 3,000 in a region with fewer players, and trying their luck from there.
As well as the 1163 accounts banned for 14 days for playing in multiple regions, 48 were banned for "account sharing". This involves multiple people using the same login details to play as the same person, and could be used to get a better player to play as you to help you qualify before you then take over later on.
8 accounts were banned for "teaming" -- co-ordinating with other players in Solo matches to gain an unfair advantage.
The most heinous offender was banned for life after being found using cheat software; Epic claimed this software was detected within five minutes of the player in question joining the end.
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Finally, one player was banned for quitting -- it was decided he had quit specifically to avoid giving points to another competitor.
While Epic did reveal the total number of prize winners who had been disqualified, they did not disclose their placements.
The prize amounts were then recalculated based on the results with the cheaters removed, though the online leaderboards were not updated to reflect this change.
Last month it was reported that Fortnite scams were helping fund organised crime gangs, while the game's business model is under threat from a new US law looking to clamp down on kids' in-game spending.
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