Community Reactions to the Cancelled Fortnite Summer Skirmish Tournament

Fortnite Battle Royale has swept the world in the last few months, and Epic Games is determined to make sure that the craze doesn’t die out by starting their own brand of competitive esports. Kicking off the whole project was supposed to be the Fortnite Summer Skirmish Series, with the first week’s format to be decided by the first team to reach two Victory Royales. Unfortunately, the tournament had to be stopped after just four matches, due to server issues that caused a majority, if not all of the players, to be stuck with horrendous lag spikes that effectively made the game unplayable. While Epic Games is almost certainly working hard to correct these issues, the community also had some thoughts to share on the format and scoring system for the tournament that indicates that a large portion of the viewers are not very happy right now.

Summer Skirmish was the most lagging tournament of all time #SummerSkirmish #Fortnite

— Anwar Salaam-Bey (@anwarisaboss) July 15, 2018

Summer Skirmish was so bad. Terrible format by Epic.

- Unplayable lag (couldn't build)
- Kills needs to be how you win.
- Ninja was not there.
- Terrible commentators
- No skill involved, just luck.
- 30+ left in the 7th storm.
- Way too much camping.

— In Ballard We Trust (@bglkillz18) July 14, 2018

The first indication of trouble comes from the Fortnite Competitive subreddit, where multiple threads have been popping up to criticize the event. The current path to victory is to win the match, secure the Victory Royale. While there is an incentive to get kills, it isn’t worth as much as simply winning the game, causing many players to adopt a more passive mindset. There’s this particular thread calling for a format change, with many finding that the nature of the game is causing a slow and unenjoyable viewing experience. That itself is not the only issue people have however, with several threads popping up to complain about the apparent lag the players are experiencing. Additionally, the viewing experience seems to be less than ideal, with threads popping up to complain about the quality of the casting and viewing, as well as the lack of proper spectating tools to cover the action.

The Fortnite Summer Skirmish looked pretty underwhelming considering a lot of it was down to lag.

— ʙʀᴏᴏᴍʏ ?? (@BroomyGraphics) July 14, 2018

BREAKING: Week 1 of Summer Skirmish has been called of due to lag issues.

— Fortnite Leaks (@FNLeaks5) July 14, 2018

In addition to those complaints, Epic Games is also being criticized for their choice of casters for the tournament, with many pointing out the apparent lack of familiarity they have with the game itself. The criticisms aren’t limited to Reddit however, with many on Twitter pointing out the stark contrast between the exciting Friday Fortnite tournaments organized by KEEMSTAR to this event which has played out much slower in comparison.

Can't decide what's more RNG for fortnite tournaments the summer skirmish setup or the fortnite Friday setup

— Obey Cotton (@LegendOfCotton) July 14, 2018

lag literally just won the summer skirmish, big yikes

— Limitable (@Limitab1e) July 14, 2018

All in all, this has been a learning experience for Epic Games. However, with so many other Battle Royale tournaments taking place these days, it does make you wonder why they’ve apparently not looked to other games for what does and doesn’t work. Hopefully the coming weeks will see the format changed to be a bit more exciting to watch, and the server issues can be fixed to provide a more enjoyable experience for both the players and the viewers.