The end of a week of Fortnite World Cup Open Qualifiers means cheating accusations. The complaint this time comes from pro player and streamer Ali “SypherPK” Hassan, who played last weekend’s duos qualifiers and ran into an odd situation with an opponent.
Sypher and his duo Marcus “Ranger” Pereira were pressuring a player named Scrub from TeamFNESS. Scrub built walls around himself when he noticed the two players were going for the kill on him, but instead of trying to counter-attack, he threw his three Dynamites on his feet, danced “Take the L” for the two players, and was eliminated shortly after by the damage from his explosives.
Sypher and Ranger, therefore, failed to eliminate him, and Scrub denied the elimination point the duo would’ve gotten if it had secured the kill.
Sypher showed the replay of that situation and argued this is against the World Cup Rules.
“You’re expected to play to the best of your abilities,” Sypher said in a video. “This is against the Terms of Service of the World Cup, not against the Terms of Service of Fortnite, like in regular games. These are specific rules of the World Cup that don’t allow this type of gameplay.”
Sypher and Ranger placed fourth in that same qualifier in North America West. Sypher recognizes it wouldn’t be enough to make them qualify since they scored 97 points, but he still says players aren’t allowed to deny eliminations like this.
The official World Cup Online Open Qualifiers rules indirectly define unsportsmanlike conduct. In term 8.2 about “Competitive Integrity”, rule 8.2.1 states that:
“Each player is expected to play to the best of her or his ability at all times during any match. Any form of unfair play is prohibited by these Rules, and may result in disciplinary action.”
A possible interpretation of this rule is that Scrub should’ve tried to overcome his disadvantageous one-vs-two situation to any extent. That doesn’t mean he should’ve gone for the eliminations, but he was expected to at least stay in the game until another player eliminated him some time. If he found any way to get out of this situation and avoid the elimination, it would have been a legal form of denying a point to Sypher and Ranger, at least in that situation.
Epic generally dishes out competitive suspensions and bans throughout the week after the qualifiers, so fans can expect news on that sometime this week.
