$500,000 Fortnite tournament hit by dramatic glitches

Steven Rondina • March 4, 2019 2:31 pm

ESL One Katowice’s Fortnite event did not go smoothly.

Taking place just days after the launch of the season eight update, the $500,000 tournament in Poland was mired by a variety of bugs introduced by the pirate-themed patch. During competition, several players encountered strange issues, with some losing out on valuable points as a result.

The most egregious example of this was seen live when Team Heretics player Marcos “MarkiLokuras” Barragan Rosado was knocked by Eleven Gaming’s Thomas “Tschilinken” Hörak. After scoring the knockdown, Tschilinken empties his shotgun and keeps on attacking with dual pistols. Despite MarkiLokuras hitting 0 HP while knocked down and being repeatedly shot after, he does not die. He later gets revived and actually helps eliminate Tschilinken.

Though that was the most egregious bug that popped up at ESL One Katowice, it was far from the only one.

Solary’s Corentin “Hunter” Tardif encountered an issue while using the newly added cannon weapon. After being launched by his teammate, the player was stuck in a tree until he was knocked down from gunfire.

Not all of the bugs came up during the live broadcast, but many more were discussed by competitors on social media. FaZe Clan’s Nate Hill stated on Twitter that he and his partner Trevor “Funk” Siegler were killed after their games froze due to a glitch with the quad vehicle. Ghost Gaming’s Issa Rahim tweeted that his camera froze during a skirmish, causing his death.

Despite the technical issues, the tournament continued on to its conclusion with Williams “Zayt” Aubin and Rocco “Saf” Morales winning in convincing fashion, scoring 831 points and taking the $80,000 top prize. Eleven Gaming’s duo of Christopher “Crippa” Storkaas and Adam “Boyer” Boyer were a distant second with 620 points.

Though Zayt and Saf’s dramatic winning score was likely to be enough no matter which bugs hit the tournament stage, it’s still an embarrassing moment for tournament organizers and for developer Epic Games.