Fortnite Player XXIF Disqualified from World Cup Finals
By Nicholas Barth ·
Epic Games has announced that it has disqualified Rise Nation Fortnite player XXIF and banned a group of others for cheating during the World Cup Week 3 qualifiers.
Saturday, May 4th will kick off the Week 4 qualifiers for the Fortnite World Cup. However, Friday, May 3rd saw developer Epic Games hand down punishment for a group of players for cheating during the Week 3 Fortnite World Cup qualifiers. This punishment included the disqualification of Rise Nation professional player XXIF from the $30,000,000 Fortnite World Cup Finals and the banning of another group of players for what many members of the community have deemed to not be suitable enough.
XXIF Disqualified from Fortnite World Cup Finals
Epic Games announced on Friday that it had recently concluded an internal investigation and found that a group of players, which included XXIF, had broken the official rules of the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers by colluding across several matches during the Week 3 qualifiers on Sunday, April 28th.
The majority of the players that were found guilty of colluding in the Week 3 qualifiers were handed a punishment that consisted of being banned from competitive play for 14 days and will not be receiving any prizing from last week's qualifier. However, Rise Nation player XXIF, who was a member of this banned group, was also disqualified from the Fortnite World Cup Finals after XXIF had qualified for the event's $30,000,000 Fortnite World Cup Finals in New York City with their score during the Week 3 qualifiers.
multiple fortnite players including two pros were handed a 14 day competitive ban by epic for colluding (teaming) across multiple games. XXIF has been disqualified from the world cup finals in new york. pic.twitter.com/BWRrkcwET1
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) May 3, 2019
This ruling follows the reveal of the group's cheating activity during last week's competition when video evidence of XXIF colluding surfaced on social media that looks to have been what prompted an investigation by Epic Games.
video of teammates xxif and ronaldo colluding/teaming pic.twitter.com/FDL3e3R4x8
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) May 3, 2019
This incident also led to Rise Nation releasing the two players on its roster that were involved in the cheating situation from the organization.
We hear you. ✍? pic.twitter.com/qCzoo6a6Lb
— RiseNation (@TheRiseNation) May 3, 2019
Unfortunately for Epic Games, the punishment that was handed down to XXIF and the other players was not nearly enough in the eyes of many members of the battle royale title's community. The reasoning for this is that there are still seven weeks of $1,000,000 qualifiers for the $30,000,000 Fortnite World Cup Finals. This means that XXIF and the other banned players could easily compete for the highly lucrative prize pool on multiple other occasions in the future despite having been officially found guilty of cheating.
Imagine breaking the rules for millions of dollars and getting a two week ban ? https://t.co/qin9SGkwr2
— fl0m (@fl0mtv) May 3, 2019
While it is encouraging to see Epic Games hand down consequences for players, such as XXIF, that are found to be guilty of cheating in the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers, the disappointing details of the consequences has made the situation a complete joke in the eyes of the community, as it feels that Epic Games does actually care about the competitive integrity of their $40,000,000 tournament.