Popular Twitch Fortnite streamer Tyler "Ninja" Belvins has been recently been involved in controversy surrounding the report system of Fortnite Battle Royale when he reported a player for allegedly stream sniping him and then later apologizing for doing so. However, another controversial situation surrounding the use of the Fortnite report system by Ninja that alleges a report by Ninja resulted in a player having his account banned has surfaced and has since prompted a response by Epic Games.
A post on the official subreddit for Fortnite Battle Royale made on Saturday, Novemebr 17th alleged that a player had been banned because of a report by Ninja where the popular Twitch streamer reported a player, who had eliminated him from a match, for having a higher ping than him which is not against the terms of service for Fortnite and is not considered an offense worthy of a ban.
This is not clickbait. Ninja got a player banned for having higher ping. Epic just banned the player only cause Ninja reported him. This is proof that Epic BANS anyone who Ninja reports and does not review the player. This is so fucking stupid. Epic Games is extremely careless. from r/FortNiteBR
Cheraxo, the player who Ninja had reported for having a higher ping than him, stated in his video that was at the center of the thread discussing the situation on the official Fortnite subreddit that he was sent an email by Epic Games stating that his account had been wrongfully banned, his account would be unbanned and that he would be compensated.
However, Epic Games soon became aware of the video stating that the Fortnite developer had only banned Cheraxo based on the higher ping report made by Ninja. An Epic Games employee took to the thread discussing the situation on the official subreddit for the popular battle royale game and explained that Cheraxo had not been banned and unbanned because of the report made by Ninja.
Another post on the Fortnite subreddit regarding the controversy shows an image of the player who is alleged to be Cheraxo give his response to the statement by the Epic Games employee stating that the report by Ninja did not get the account in question banned.
A reddit user by the name of Draxzen replied to the post above with a video clip showing a portion of a stream by Cheraxo where the player is pleasantly surprised by his video that alleged Epic Games had banned his account because of the higher ping report by Ninja gaining a great deal of exposure on the subreddit for Fortnite.
The video also shows Cheraxo had typed the statement of "what can I say, we literally ruined his career HAHA" when discussing the situation. This has led to many members of the community to believe that Cheraxo had tried to manipulate the situation in order to get views for his video and tarnish the career of Ninja.
At the time of this writing, Ninja has not publicly addressed the latest controversy surrounding a report he had made against another player.
Epic Games has made it clear that it treats every report made, no matter how influential the person making the report is, the same and that no one player can get another banned based off of one report. It remains to be seen if Ninja will face consequences for what many consider to be an abuse of the report system of Fortnite or if Cheraxo will be banned again for what looks to a manipulation of the situation for personal gain.
(cover photo courtesy of h3h3Productions)
