The creator of 'Fortnite' has banned more than 1,000 accounts for cheating during the first round of its $30 million tournament
- Epic Games banned more than 1,000 "Fortnite" accounts for violating the rules of the Fortnite World Cup during the event's very first online tournament.
- The vast majority of banned players tried to enter the tournament in multiple regions, violating the rules. Other banned players violated the rules by using cheat software, sharing their account, or teaming with other players in solo mode.
- Epic is offering $1 million in prize money each week for the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers; the World Cup finals will have a $30 million prize pool.
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The creators of "Fortnite" banned more than 1,000 accounts for cheating during the first Fortnite World Cup qualifying tournament.
Epic Games explained the reasoning behind the bans in a blog post released earlier this week; the first Fortnite World Cup Online Open was held on April 13 and 14 with a prize pool of $1 million dollars.
A total of 1,221 accounts were banned during the first online qualifier. Epic said 1,163 players were banned from competitive "Fortnite" play for two weeks for trying to circumvent the game's region locks. "Fortnite" awards World Cup prizes to thousands of players spread across six different regions: Europe, Asia, Brazil, Oceana, and the East and West coasts of North America. Epic said 196 prize winners were disqualified and forced to forfeit their prize money for playing across different regions.
Another 48 accounts were suspended for two weeks for sharing their account with other players. Nine of the offending accounts were forced to forfeit prize money. Similarly, eight accounts were banned for teaming up with other players in the solo competitive mode. Fortnite World Cup alternates between solo and duo tournaments each week, but some players broke the rules by working together during the World Cup.
Just one player was banned for using cheat software during the tournament semi-finals. Epic said the player was in the game for less than five minutes before the cheats were detected. The final ban was 72-hour suspension for a player who intentionally disconnected to avoid giving another player qualifier points.
"Fortnite" uses an anti-cheat software called BattlEye to detect when players are using hacks or illegal software. The game also has a report function for players to report suspicious activity. Players who create new accounts to circumvent the bans risk being permanently banned from competitive "Fortnite" play.
"Fortnite" is free for anyone to play and compete, and there are more than 250 million registered accounts. Epic Games will host the third online qualifier for the Fortnite World Cup this week, the Fortnite World Cup Finals will be held from July 26 to July 28 in New York City.