Competitive Fortnite players were furious to find out Epic Games had structured the Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 in a way that provides no time for warm-up ahead of matches, only to see Epic reverse course on the decision just before the start of the tournament.
Despite the high amount of money it awards to players, Epic Games is continuing to build a negative reputation within the competitive community. In the past, the developers have made last-second changes to tournament structures and have updated the game with meta-altering features just days before large events.
Even though work has been done to fix the problems this has caused, Epic continued to stress out its competitive player base heading to the World Cup Finals, one of the largest esports events of the year. Players that are fighting for large sums of money on Fortnite’s most important stage thought they would have to go into their deciding matches without proper preparation.
What worsened the situation is that by doing this, Epic would be breaking its own rules. Namely, chapter 8.2 “Pre-match Setup” of the 2019 Fortnite World Cup Finals Official Rules promises players a setup time that begins once they’ve entered the event floor.
Based on the rules, the setup time should be comprised of quality checking equipment, connecting and calibrating peripherals, checking the voice communication system, adjusting in-game settings, and of course a limited in-game warm-up.
Many competitors at the event turned to Twitter and Reddit to share their frustration about the absence of warm-up time. A Discord screenshot that’s circulating around social media shows Epic’s representative under the alias “Skyzyn ∣ Colin” confirming players will have no warm-up time. Based on this, players would only have half an hour to check their on-stage equipment between their arrival and the start of their games.
However, Epic has once again flipped their decision around now that the Finals have started. Without many details being revealed on the exact process, a few competitors tweeted they were indeed allowed warm-up time.
Still, this doesn’t change the fact that Epic has once again caused unnecessary stress to the competitors and frustration in the community. The players may have gotten what they wanted, but the whole fuss shouldn’t have happened in the first place as warm-ups are of great importance to competitive players.
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