Fortnite pro Bugha calls controller aim assist "hacking"

Olivia Richman Published 02/03/2020

Ever since Epic Games introduced cross-platform play to Fortnite, the community has been debating if keyboard and mouse players should be competing against controller players.

At first, this was because controller players were at a severe disadvantage, thanks to the keyboard and mouse’s superior accuracy and movement capabilities. But when Epic Games added aim assist for controller players, allowing them to more easily track targets, PC players began to feel like controller players had an unfair advantage over them.

Fortnite World Cup winner, Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, most recently called out controller players in a stream over the weekend.

After being eliminated from two clean shots from Scoped, another pro player, Bugha went off on a tangent about controller players. Even though Scoped is considered one of the best controller players in the world, Bugha seemed to think his the elimination was less about Scoped’s skill and more a side effect of aim assist.

“Please just get nerfed,” Bugha said in an aggravated tone. “It’s not fair.”

Bugha feels aim assist is so unfair, in fact, that he compared it to cheating.

“No keyboard and mouse player hits that shit. I just died, man. He doesn’t even mean to lock on to me either. It’s just hacking bro, it’s actually just hacking,” Bugha continued.

While Bugha seemed quite passionate about the ongoing civil war between keyboard and mouse and controller players, his followers felt he may have reacted too harshly. He’d already had low health when Scoped got the KO.

Ninja and Nickmercs debate aim assist

Bugha isn’t the only popular Fortnite streamer to air frustrations over aim assist. Over the weekend, Mixer star Tyler “Ninja” Blevins got into a heated debate over controllers with Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff. The two may have been on the same team, but they weren’t on the same page about controllers at all.

Ninja called controllers “OP,” prompting Nickmercs to point out how if controllers were truly OP, keyboard and mouse players would switch over. This was nothing compared to Ninja’s tweet on the subject in the past, saying that controller players “made him want to vomit.”

While both players didn’t seem to agree on who truly had the advantage in Fortnite, they both seemed to think that controller players should have their own servers when it comes to competitive tournaments.

Others in the Fortnite community have called for aim assist to be nerfed, something that Epic tried in the past. On February 25, the date of their maintenance patch, Epic had an update on their Trello board that discussed a fix for “inconsistent aim assist.”

Aside from that small change, Epic has never stated they are going to nerf aim assist despite the constant complaints from pro players.

Olivia Richman

About Olivia Richman

Olivia has worked in media ever since graduating from college, with her coverage ranging from traditional newspaper reporting to digital coverage of all things gaming, online betting, and nerd culture. She has traveled around the world pursuing that coverage, from the far coasts of the United States to the busy downtown core of Tokyo, Japan. Olivia’s favorite games include Overwatch and Super Smash Smash Bros, and she has been published at Esports Illustrated, Inven Global, EsportsInsider, Upcomer, and elsewhere.

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