Aqua banned from FNCS while grudge match exposes bitter realities

Fortnite
October 27, 2020
Jordan Ashley

The Fortnite Champion Series is heading into its final stretch, with the third heat taking place over the weekend. While there were plenty of big games going on, something different has dominated the news. A feud between the teams of Aqua and Benjyfishy has heated up, and lead to some disastrous consequences. The weekend saw Aqua banned from FNCS, after a few hours of mixed messages.

The reason for the ban can be a bit confusing. It was technically labeled as ‘other’. What happened overall is a bit bigger, with teams using inside information to one-up each other and purposely throwing matches to chase down a specific trio.  This is everything that’s happened:

Aqua Banned from FNCS for 14 Days

Aqua specifically has been handed out a 14-day ban. This essentially writes him out of the FNCS, since there’s not long left in the tournament’s schedule. This is going to have quite an effect on the end tournament. Aqua is one of the best Fortnite players around at the moment, so this has an impact on things like Fortnite betting. The official reason given for his ban was ‘Other’, but it seems that it is essentially a form of stream sniping that has gotten him into trouble.

Aqua got into this situation because of an escalating problem with another trio, MrSavage, benjyfishy, and LeTsHe. Only Aqua’s side has been given a ban, but both prioritized a personal grudge over the integrity of the entire tournament.

Epic didn’t exactly communicate what went on very well. They even had quite a delay before actually formalizing the Aqua ban. While plenty of people are siding with Aqua here, everything that went on within Epic’s own guidelines and rules for players’ conduct.

Epic’s ruling on the aqua situation with a warning and subsequent ban falls in line with the updated rules this season from FortniteCompetitive

 Two Trio’s Feud

The feud between the two teams in the FNCS comes from competing for a landing spot.  Both teams have been landing at Doom’s Domain. This is one of the best landing spots on the map and by no means a place that one team should be able to claim for themselves in every game. With the Fortnite chest spawn rate changed this season, spots like Doom’s Domain are high value since they get around this problem.

Competing for the same landing spot has gotten worse with the reduced spawn rate. So, Aqua’s trio and benjy’s trio have been facing off a lot. Things have gotten pretty tense, and it does seem both sides have gotten pretty personal.

Benjyfishy’s team appears to have purposely thrown a game once knocked down so they can jump into the same game as Aqua. Both teams knew about each other doing this because they were watching each other’s stream. This isn’t that uncommon, but it is definitely in violation of how the game is supposed to be played.

Watching the streams of other players can give you information on their whereabouts that you can use for stream sniping. This gives a team a big advantage, and it’s easy to see why Epic wants to cut down on it.

What is more confusing though is why only Aqua has been banned. There is pretty clear evidence that Benjy’s trio was also attempting to get into the same game. Although, they appear to just be using the in-game features to see what Aqua is doing, not a stream. This might be enough of a dividing line to keep one set safe. However, neither Trio have exactly presented themselves with high integrity during the competition.

Welp… from FortniteCompetitive

What Does This Mean for the FNCS?

That Aqua is banned from the FNCS has a bit of an impact on both this tournament and the future. In the immediate consequences, one of the best Fortnite teams is no longer going to be able to compete in this event. On a wider scale, it is probably for the best that Epic makes an example out of someone using streams for an advantage. Fortnite games are heavily streamed, so this information can make cheating pretty easy in-game.

In the future, teams need to know that organizing around drop spots is going to get them kicked out of a game. Between deliberately avoiding other teams in games to using streams to attack other players, all of this is going to complicate things. Epic is right to make an example out of the team, but it wouldn’t be unfair to think they’ve messed up in enforcing the rules equally. Teams shouldn’t be allowed to derail an entire competition to chase down a personal grudge. Both trios behaved childishly, even to say they’re some of the younger Fortnite pros. Despite age though, Epic needs to be doing more to prevent stuff like this completely derailing a huge tournament.

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