Fortnite Trios Cash Cup's rules changed minutes before event

Steven Rondina Published 14/07/2019

Fortnite esports continues to take two steps back for each one forward.

The highly anticipated Trios Cash Cup event will be running with a special set of rules due to the discovery of some troublesome bugs. The news was announced by Epic Games on Twitter approximately 15 minutes before start time.

“While addressing the material drop issue in the Trios Cash Cup, we ran into a different issue,” Epic said. “We’ve decided to run the Trios Cash Cup with the default harvesting rate and without material drop for the rest of the weekend.”

The Trios Cash Cup has been highly anticipated among Fortnite pros, who have been looking forward to shaking things up after months of solos and duos for the Fortnite World Cup. The event is set to feature a $1 million global prize pool.

To accommodate the larger teams, harvesting was made easier on multiple fronts, allowing players to quickly top up on metal and brick. Resetting this to standard carries serious strategic consequences as materials will be much scarcer for each team of three players. Competitors will have to adjust their entire game plan for the event, needing to reconsider their drop zone, building tactics, and so on.

It is unclear exactly what bugs were caused, but Epic stated on Reddit that the options were to delay the event or to change the game mode’s settings. Naturally, the pro Fortnite community did not take the news well.

Fortnite esports stars react to late game change

Responses from Fortnite professionals ranged from sarcastic to downright incendiary. Stars including Turner “Tfue” Tenney and Kyle “Mongraal” Jackson snarked about the news on Twitter with reaction gifs, while others like Davis “Ceice” McClellan took a similar approach but were more blunt in their criticism.

The late change soured many on the event and dredged up the continuing frustration with Fortnite’s approach to esports.

For a long while, Epic Games’ ongoing changes to Fortnite have left pro players angry as they constantly adjust to new weapons, new vehicles, and changes to the very map. Though the constant tweaks can be overwhelming for a casual player, it has exasperated the competitive scene as pros routinely find themselves having to relearn the game with tens of thousands of dollars on the line.

Worse yet, a number of events have been mired by crashes and game-breaking bugs.

Though Fortnite remains a powerhouse, Epic’s relationship with pro players continues to deteriorate. Whether Epic can continue to hold things together with weekly $1 million events remains to be seen.

Steven Rondina

About Steven Rondina

Steven Rondina is a true lifelong gamer. His earliest memories are of playing video games, and he has continued playing them throughout his life with no plans to stop any time soon. Steven’s favorite franchises in gaming include Pokemon, Dark Souls, and Counter-Strike. He has previously published with Bleacher Report and other gaming outlets.

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