With Fortnite’s multi-weekend Summer Skirmish into its second week, fans are decrying the seemingly dubious tactics of this week’s winner, a player with the pseudonym iDroPz_BoDiEs.
Summer Skirmish is an 8-week series with a prize pool of 8 million dollars running throughout the summer. The format shifts from week to week and those playing are pulled from a selection of content creators and players who’ve proven their worth for winning that coveted Victory Royale. The competition encountered technical issues in its first week with many participants complaining of significant lag problems.
This week’s event was based on the cumulative highest score from 10 games. After amassing the highest overall score and besting 129 other players, iDroPz_BoDiEs banked a nifty $130,000 in prize money, but things soon went awry as the player was labelled a cheat. Many accused him of using a mouse and keyboard setup though he was playing on PlayStation 4. He allegedly also arranged match fixes by colluding with other competitors. The fact he did not stream the event and apparently dodged games if conditions were not favorable prompted others to contact Epic games about his performance.
In response, Epic launched an investigation into the allegations, the results of which were posted on reddit. The developer concluded that no untoward methods had been employed and iDropz_Bodies had won the event fair and square, in line with rules and requirements. It noted the lack of streaming was due to the PS4’s streaming software inability to incorporate a 2 minute stream delay as is required by the event’s rules. Epic were quick to point out streaming was not a requirement for participation either.
As for collusion, Epic said ‘iDroPz_BoDiEs had 129 eliminations during the event and every single elimination was on a different opponent. This is not indicative of him having been intentionally fed eliminations and/or collusion with other players’. Regarding the match dodging, Epic confirmed the player only joined 10 games this weekend and did not skip any according to in-game analytics. To further dispel doubts, iDroPz_BoDiEs uploaded all the replays of his games from this weekend. Finally, Epic states there are no rules preventing console players from using a keyboard and mouse setup, nor was there any proof iDroPz_BoDiEs did so.
Though Epic absolved the player, it was quick to reiterate that its ‘primary goal is to support competition that is fun, inclusive, and in line with the overall spirit of Fortnite. Unsportsmanlike conduct from participants is not within that spirit, and will not be tolerated in Fortnite competition’.
