Fortnite Community Calls for Skirmish Events to Stop Until Server Lag is Fixed

Epic Games has begun the official esports scene for its popular battle royale title of Fortnite with two Skirmish events that have taken place over the course of several weeks and have millions of dollars awarded in prize money. The first Skirmish event was the Fortnite Summer Skirmish Series where $8,000,000 was awarded over the course of eight weeks. Following the Fortnite Summer Skirmish is the current Fall Skirmish Series that will see $10,000,000 awarded over the course of six weeks.

However, many of the biggest names in the Fortnite community are calling for Epic Games to stop having these events until issues with the server lag in the matches are fixed. 

Due to there being millions of dollars on the line for competing players in the Skirmish events, many of the participating players will play a passive style in order to avoid being eliminated early. While Epic Games has pushed for players to chase eliminations in the formats for the weekly tournaments of these events, this still has not been enough to stop there from being dozens of players left in the matches' final circles. With so many players fighting and building in circles not designed to see that much activity, issues with server lag have been a major complaint among competitors throughout the weeks. 

These issues with the server lag of the private servers that Epic Games uses for thes events came to a boiling point during Week 5 of the Fortnite Fall Skirmish, as the likes of Tyler "Ninja" Belvins, Team SoloMid Fortnite captain Ali "Myth" Kabbani and many others spoke out about the lag problems. 

Ninja was one of the first to voice his frustrations with the lag issues, as a sever case of server lag resulted in Ninja being eliminated from one of the matches during Week 5 of the Fortnite Fall Skirmish and caused the popular streamer to ask why the players even play these Fortnite Skirmish matches. 

TSM Myth took to his Twitter account following the conclusion of Week 5 and voiced his belief that Epic Games should stop hosting these million dollar events until they fix the server lag issues and stated that they could have 100 players to test things out in an instant. 

I don't know what EPIC's plans are for the future but I do have just one suggestion if anyone is listening

Please take a break from these MILLION dollar skirmishes until the lag is fixed. You can have 100 players at the snap of your fingers to test this stuff.

Jas Do Et

— Myth (@TSM_Myth) October 20, 2018

Team Liquid professional player POACH also voiced the same sentiment regarding Epic Games postponing future events with million dollar prize pools until the developer is able to host a private server that does not suffer from the lag issues that have plagued previous events. Liquid POACH went on to liken playing in the Fortnite Skirmish matches to winning the lottery. 

EPIC needs to sort out these issues before massive prize pools are given in these tourneys. Every week there is some sort of lag and it IS game-changing. Its like playing a different game, NOTHING you practice matters.

— POACH (@LiquidPoach) October 19, 2018

The last event for the Fortnite Fall Skirmish will be taking place at TwitchCon and will be a LAN event. This LAN environment should eliminate the lag issues that Epic Games has experienced with its private online servers. With the rest of the $10,000,000 prize pool to be awarded at the TwitchCon tournament, all of the competing players will be hoping to not have to deal with the lag issues that have a point of controversy for the esports scene of Fortnite in the title's Skirmish events.

(cover photo courtesy of Epic Games)