The Fortnite World Cup is just underway, but Epic Games already has its hands full with cheaters who are trying to get away with an unfair advantage over other competitors.
Epic Games revealed in a blog post titled Fortnite – Competitive Game Integrity that in the first week of the Fortnite World Cup, the developer has already banned 1,163 accounts from competitive play for 14 days for bypassing region locks and playing in multiple regions in the tournament, which are against the rules. Out of these banned players, 196 have already won prizes, so their winnings were forfeited.
Another 48 accounts were banned for account sharing, including nine prize winners, and eight more accounts that were banned for teaming, including one prize winner. Epic Games also revealed that one account was permanently banned for using cheat software, five minutes after the player joined the semifinals of the weeks, and another account was banned from competitive play for 72 hours for intentionally disconnecting in order to prevent another player from scoring points.
In total, Epic Games has handed out 1,221 bans in just the first week of the Fortnite World Cup. The game creator added that players who compete using alternate or new accounts while they are under a competitive ban may lead to a permanent embargo.
Esports team Kaliber recently released Jonathan Kosmala for cheating during the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers, as he was turned in by the creator of the cheat that he used, Polygon reported. It remains unclear if the permanently banned account that Epic Games referred to in its blog post was Kosmala.
It is good to see Epic Games and esports teams taking the fight against cheating seriously, especially with the high stakes of the Fortnite World Cup. The tournament starts with the Online Open, which will offer $1 million in prize money to competitors each week.
Winners of the weekly Online Open Finals, which will be held every Sunday until June 16, may qualify for the limited slots of the Fortnite World Cup Finals. The culminating event will be held in New York City from July 26 to 28, when competitors will fight it out for a prize pool of $30 million.
