Tyler “Ninja” Blevins got a bit of a moral victory when playing in the Fortnite World Cup duos qualifiers.
During the latest week of events, Ninja and his partner Malachi “Reverse2k” Greiner scored a huge kill at the expense of none other than Turner “Tfue” Tenney. Ninja and Reverse2k were not streaming their run in the qualifiers this week.
While attempting to snipe another enemy from a distance in an edited build, Tfue gets shot three times, knocking him down. Ninja and Reverse2k then look to finish him off, wiping out Tfue’s buildings and forcing back his partner Dennis “Cloak” Lepore with dynamite. That leaves him exposed, which allows Ninja to eliminate him.
It was a clean kill for Ninja and one that showed he is still capable of bagging and tagging top level pro players, but it wasn’t enough to get him into the Fortnite World Cup.
Despite having their strongest run in the qualifiers thus far, Ninja and Reverse2k fell just two points short of qualifying for the upcoming tournament. Though the pair didn’t stream their games, they seemingly debuted a new strategy focused on staying alive as long as possible rather than hunting for kills. This saw them land near the top of the scoreboard, despite having the lowest average kills per game among top performers.
It’s a disappointing outcome for Ninja, but still a sign of progress.
One of the biggest ongoing stories of the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers has been the struggles of top streamers and players to make the cut. Ninja has been one of the foremost testaments to that, falling well short of qualifying for solos and struggling to make the cut for duos as well. Plenty of other top stars are in the same boat, as Thomas “72hrs” Mulligan, Daequan “Daequan” Loco, and more have been unable to make the cut.
Despite that, Ninja and Reverse2k have climbed up the ranks each week in duos and could have the tools and teamwork to make the cut in the near future.
There is still time for Ninja and his peers to punch a ticket to the World Cup, with four more weeks of qualifiers set to take place. Ninja is likely to return next week for solos and will return after that with Reverse2k for another run in duos.
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