Esports
Fortnite esports shines with Baller disabled
Beginning with the placement of the Infinity Blade before the Winter Royale, Fortnite esports has been in constant flux.
The planes transitioned straight into The Baller and those two vehicles have dominated games ever since the beginning of Season 7.
Last weekend we finally got a reprieve. Due to a bug where players were unable to exit vehicles, Epic had to disable The Baller in the finals on Sunday.
The result was our first glimpse at Fortnite esports without an overpowered vehicle. The result was fantastic, but naturally had players wishing this could be the normal state for Fortnite esports.
This is what the end game looks like without vehicles:
The builds at the end of a match in today’s qualifiers. from r/FortNiteBR
One popular theory as to why vehicles had stayed in the game so long was that end games like that would cause overwhelming amounts of lag.
I have prescribed to this theory and covered it in numerous articles because it is a rational explanation for Epic’s continued support of the planes and baller.
But on Sunday we learned that lag wasn’t a big issue. There were hiccups absolutely but lag didn’t cause significant issues even in that complicated behemoth of a structure.
Why last weekend still wasn’t a success
In a normal esport, developments would be announced and players would have time to react to them.
If that was the situation, the removal of The Ballers would be a welcome change to the community. But as it stands now, players have built their strategies around The Baller and used them to qualify for Sunday.
Then a tweet goes out at 8:10 PM PT on Saturday night saying that all vehicles will be disabled. For players in other regions like Switzerland’s Ghost Issa, that tweet went out at 5:10 AM.
Due to an issue where players can become stuck in a vehicle and unable to exit, we will be disabling all vehicles for the remainder of this week’s tournament – all regions will play the Sunday Finals with vehicles disabled.
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) May 12, 2019
That gave him only hours to adjust his strategy to the new ruleset as he tries to qualify for the most lucrative esports tournament in history.
He still managed to qualify, but thousands of players went to bed on Saturday after using The Baller to qualify for Sunday, and weren’t able to successfully adjust the next day.
- Read More: Fortnite Tactical AR stats have been leaked
We are now halfway through the World Cup qualifiers and any hope of consistency coming to Fortnite esports seems long gone.
This tweet from longtime esports reporter Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau does well to sum up the issues with Fortnite esports:
between epic making sudden major and unbalanced gameplay changes, players dealing with bugs, cheaters, teamers, griefers, and not properly addressing any of it, not a week has gone by without some form of clown fiesta for what is the biggest prize pool in esports history
— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) May 12, 2019
OWL commentator MonteCristo chimed in with even more harsh criticism of Fortnite’s place as an esport:
It's very generous of you to call it an esport under these circumstances. I consider it more of a promotional showmatch.
— MonteCristo (@MonteCristo) May 12, 2019
While the Overwatch League has its own share of issues with the current GOATs meta, the esports scene is at least a priority for Blizzard.
That is what made last weekend such an interesting case study. On one hand, we finally got to see what Fortnite esports could look like without The Ballers. But on the other hand, the way they were removed was yet another example of everything wrong with how Epic Games has run the esports scene.
Leave it to Epic to remove a problematic vehicle in a problematic way which left the competitive community conflicted and confused.
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Fortnite v15.20 patch notes: Hop Rock Dualies, New & Unvaulted weapons
Epic Games have rolled out Fortnite patch v15.20, with a whole host of changes.
Epic Games have rolled out Fortnite patch v15.20, with a whole host of changes. While official patch notes are hard to come by these days, we’ve rounded up all of the new content.
The last few weeks in Fortnite have went by without many big tweaks to the gameplay experience, and certainly a lack of new skins and cosmetics compared to times gone by.
However, a whole host of new outfits have been leaked and that’s just the tip of the iceberg for this weekly update. A new Predator crossover has also been uncovered by dataminers, meaning Predator could soon arrive in-game – with a new ship, banner, and spray leaked.
Those are, of course, unconfirmed changes though, so let’s take a look at everything we’re certain of.
Fortnite v15.20 patch notes
Hop Rock Dualies
A new set of dual pistols have arrived in Fortnite, as seen below in a tweet from VastBlast.
New & Unvaulted weapons/items
There’s four new weapons and items coming into the loot pool (well, unvaulted as well) – seen below. This was also confirmed by VastBlast.
- Legendary Tactical Assault Rifle
- Rare Tactical Assault Rifle (All Rarities)
- Lever Action Shotgun
- Uncommon Snowy Flopper
At first, the leaker thought this Sawed Shotgun was going to be headed solely for Save the World, but it’s since been confirmed to be part of the update.
Pre-edit changes
Some adjustments have been made to the Pre-Edits Option. Now, with ‘Disable Pre-Edits On,’ all player-built structures can’t be edited until they’re placed.
Fortnite v15.20 bug fixes and changes
According to the official Fortnite Trello board, here’s all of the bug fixes and changes to be implemented in the latest patch.
General
- Sound effect audio delay.
- Flip Rest Lobby Track inadvertently removed from players’ Lockers.
- Multipoint Edge Glider deforming midair.
- Michonne Outfit visual issues with cape Back Blings.
Battle Royale
- Game freezing when going to the Complete tab on PlayStation and Xbox.
- Sand Tunnelling temporarily disabled.
- Total Bars appearing as “0” in a match.
- Hypernova Outfit appearing as a different Outfit in the Lobby and in-match.
- Rebooted players may see an already completed Bounty.
Save the World
- Quest progress not instantly updating in the HUD and Quest Log.
- Broken Pickaxe animations.
Mobile Top Issues
- Voice chat issues on Android.
- The player loses all movement after jumping through Zero Point.
Fortnite has been adding a number of hunters since The Mandalorian first landed on the island, and it looks like Predator might be next – if leaks are accurate.
The game has seen some insane crossovers in the last year or two, including those from the DC Comics, Marvel and Star Wars universes.
Well, next on that list might be one of the deadliest extraterrestrial attackers.
On January 13, following the v15.20 update, dataminer Lucas7Yoshi revealed a new ‘Nightmare Ship’ leak for Fortnite.
- Read More: Fortnite v15.20 leaked skins & cosmetics
As you can see, this is the ship of Predator, from the movie series that started in 1987.
Fortnite Predator ship, spray & banner leaked
Not only that, but VastBlast has doubled down on that with a new spray leak, which clearly shows Predator is on the way in some shape or form.
Based on the arrival of Mando in his Star Wars ship, we can likely expect to see Predator join the action soon as a boss on the map – just like other NPCs that have been added during the season.
Once we have more information, we’ll be sure to keep you updated.
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Fortnite v15.20 leaked skins & cosmetics: Ruby Shadows, Orin, Bundles
Epic Games are adding a whole new set of Fortnite skins and cosmetics to the game with the v15.20 update.
A number of brand new Fortnite skins and cosmetics have leaked following the v15.20 update in Epic Games’ battle royale title.
The game has undergone some huge changes during the course of Season 5, with The Mandalorian crossover seeing more outfits from the world of Star Wars arrive in the Fortnite Item Shop and Battle Pass rewards.
Now, however, even more are set to be added to the game after the January 13 content refresh.
The weekly update has shaken things up once again, so let’s take a look at all of the exciting skins and cosmetics to have leaked so far.
Fortnite v15.20 leaked skins
Confirmed by leaker Lucas7Yoshi, there’s three skins included in the patch. When they will be released, however, is unconfirmed at the time of writing.
Fortnite v15.20 leaked cosmetics
Aside from those three skins – named Ruby Shadows, Orin, and Tess – a plethora of cosmetics we’ve never seen before have been leaked as well.
Lucas7Yoshi revealed the following graphic just moments after the patch went live…
The dataminer also revealed, as seen in the tweet below, that two other gliders are heading into the game as well.
Two Bundles leaked
Last, but certainly not least, two skin bundles have also been uncovered by the dataminer – seen below.
These will be called the Tess bundle and MACHINIST MINA pack.
- Read More: Fortnite v15.20: Early patch notes
So, which skin will you be grabbing from this new set – or even cosmetic? Let us know!
If more are released by other leakers, we’ll be the first to let you know.
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