Fortnite Pro Players caught cheating in in-game events

Two competitive Fortnite players have again been caught cheating during an in-game event. This particular cup was a precursor to a tournament, there has been some debate over which event the cheating took place in. However, it has been definitely shown that the two players were cheating. This is the latest in a series of streamers cheating accusations that have plagued in-game events.

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Players Bagel4K and sevenjoshh have been accused of cheating during an in-game tournament that acts as the qualifier for the Blackheart Cup. They are both European competitive Fortnite players that have become well-known as up and coming players in the scene. Despite these accusations, the pair did make it through the qualifying event to play in the Blackheart Cup. It is unknown if Epic would have acted on their inclusion in the tournament if this had been known before the event took place on the 23^rd and 24^th of March. These accusations were only brought to light following the cup.

A Reddit user drew attention to a stream of the two players during the qualifying event. In the section he posted, you can see sevenjoshh collaborating with the other player. Sevenjoshh drops a shield potion on the ground to give to Bagel4k. This move gave the player extra health and helped him stay in the game much longer than would have been possible if they were playing by the rules. This sort of cheating has been seen before and is an unfortunately common occurrence in poorly-moderated solo events. One of the two players is currently actively seeking an organisation to represent, raising questions about his future conduct.

These two players have taken collaboration to a new level. They are also seen building a structure together, and even going after another isolated player together. This kind of collaboration gives the two of them a serious advantage and it is much more serious than previous incidents of items being given from one player to another. Bagel4K initially denied these actions were cheating. He claimed that the video that had been provided was from a Duos event. This tweeted response was then deleted.

Since then, Bagel4K has again addressed the controversy this time a little more honestly. He has now admitted that the video was from a solo event. He has confirmed that the video was taken from a Solo Gauntlet event. This means that he was still cheating in an in-game tournament meant for solo players. It has been confirmed that this is the case. However, the cheating was in another tournament entirely. Since this is known behavior, it does raise some questions about the two player’s qualification for the Blackheart Cup. There are currently no videos available of their qualification for that event, raising the question of further collaborations. Sevenjoshh has not responded to the accusations.

Fortnite ambitious plans for its 2019 competitive tournaments rest on in-game qualifiers. These events open the potential pool of competitors to all players and help to ensure a vibrant and exciting selection process. However, it leaves the door open to this kind of conduct. It is an all too common story that competitive players have secured their places in events based on cheating. It might be difficult to reconcile these rules with the commitment to in-game events with big prize pools. However, it is something of an epidemic. If Epic’s bigger tournaments are to have legitimacy, they need to do something to address this cheating and prevent players from engaging in it to qualify in their major events.

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