This article is part of our Fortnite series.
Okay, imploding may be a bit of an exaggeration. But plenty of issues have popped up over the first two weeks of Epic Games' Summer Skirmish Series that need to be dug into and cleaned up a bit.
First there was the lag that cut the disaster that was Week 1 short after just four matches. As if that wasn't enough, the second week saw its own share of issues centered around allegations of cheating and the revelation of some, let's say, interesting rulesets.
While things have definitely improved since that initial outing, the issues that have cropped up during these first few Summer Skirmish tournaments could possibly derail this whole thing if they aren't addressed.
Hello lag, my old friend
I don't want to dwell on this one too much since Epic already said they're working on getting the server issues locked down by Week 3, but I'd be remiss if I didn't at least touch on it.
Above all else, lag is the one thing that could prevent any of the tournaments from really getting off the ground. If the players can't even play the game because of lag like this, the rest of the issues that I'll get into here won't even matter. This has to be the main thing that Epic has to nail down before Summer Skirmish can really find itself on solid ground.
Give me them kills, baby
The best thing that Epic did between Weeks 1 and 2 was have the scoring be focused on securing kills. Wins should certainly matter, but they can't be the end all be all.
Never. Ever. Ever. Ever. Ever. Again can Epic have a tournament be decided solely on the number of wins a player or team can get. Doing so creates boring ass gameplay like this.
I don't blame the players because with hundreds of thousands of dollars on the line, there's no point in getting aggressive when all that matters is the win. That's why the scoring system that Epic used for Week 2 was perfect. Players got one point per kill, five points per win, and a bonus 10 points (and $10,000) for getting over 20 kills in a single game. Since these players were in public lobbies where they could easily slay out, this system is perfect. Camping to get a win with only a few kills will pale in comparison to people dropping 15-plus bombs on the regular.
I will say, though, that once the players are all playing against each other and not just doing pub stomps, the points for wins should go up to 10. I think it'll be rare to see players drop 15-20 kills games when they're only playing against other pro players, which means that wins should feel a bit more meaningful than they do when playing against randoms.
However the points end up shaking out, kills absolutely have to be factored in or else you end up with 100 people just camping in 1x1 forts and that's fun for no one.
The console-sized elephant in the room
When iDroPz_BoDiEs came out of nowhere last Friday and put on a ridiculous slaying performance to win over over $100,000, to say there was an outcry would be an understatement. There were enough accusations of cheating to make your head spin. Every single one was shot down in a Reddit post by Epic on Saturday morning. Anyone still believing that he cheated is just a hater, in my opinion.
Besides the cheating allegations, though, there are a few things that cropped up in this post by Epic that bear discussion.
The biggest problem here is that it's not against the rules to use a keyboard and mouse on console since Epic "[does] not restrict input device for players on [their] platforms in an effort to promote accessibility for our entire audience." While this is a commendable outlook and is in line with Epic's model of making Fortnite available to every single person on the face of the planet, when there are millions of dollars up for grabs, Epic simply cannot take the casual approach.
Allowing someone to use keyboard and mouse on console (something which Epic found no evidence of iDroPz_BoDiEs doing on Friday, so haters sit down) is probably right up there with lag as the single biggest issue that could derail this whole venture. All it takes is one person being invited to one of the Summer Skirmish events and queuing up on console (which is allowed since players like iDroPz_BoDiEs and Nick "NICKMERCS" Kolcheff play exclusively on console) with a keyboard and mouse and blowing everyone away.
There's no problem with someone using a SCUF or some other kind of controller since it's just a normal controller with some paddles on the back to allow moving and jumping/crouching at the same time. With a keyboard and mouse on console, however, you can gain an extra advantage that's simply unfair.
When playing Fortnite on console, there's a thing called aim assist that comes into play. Since you're playing with a controller and it's harder to be as precise with your aiming as you can be with a mouse, the game basically auto corrects your aiming by adjusting the crosshairs for you while aiming. This makes it easier to get pinpoint snipes and all that fancy business. When you play Fortnite on PC, though, there is no aim assist. You've just got git gud and learn how to aim with a mouse if you want to compete with the best of them.
When you use adapters to hook a keyboard and mouse into a console, however, the aim assist is still there. So you get the innate precision of a mouse coupled with the aim assist that consoles bring. Basically it makes it easier to land your shots. It's surely not a magic tool that will make you better at the game if you suck, but it can certainly create an uneven playing field, which is unacceptable when you're talking about million dollar prize pools.
If Epic wants to keep these tournaments honest and fair, they've simply got to change this rule before someone swoops in and snatches up an incredible amount of money. The outcry last Friday will be nothing compared to how people will react of this becomes a reality.
Let me see your beautiful faces
In the Reddit post that cleared iDroPz_BoDiEs' name, Epic mentioned that they do not require players to stream their games during the Summer Skirmish in an effort to make this accessible to everyone. Much like the input device policy, this is commendable, but simply unacceptable from a competitive standpoint.
Requiring players to stream their games adds in an extra layer of security to prevent that nothing nefarious is happening. A couple of the common theories that were popping around last Friday -- that he had friends queue sniping him for easy kills and that he was leaving lobbies when the Battle Bus didn't have a favorable path -- could have been easily prevented if he was streaming his games. There was admittedly another issue that popped up since he usually streams from a console where you can't set up a stream delay to prevent viewers from stream sniping and ruin the games, but I think it would have been better to risk a stream sniper than letting the Reddit hive get all fired up for hours complaining about something that wasn't happening.
It's nice and all that Epic wants to allow just about anyone to compete in these tournaments (iDroPz_BoDiEs isn't a sponsored pro player but was invited due to his performance during the Solo Showdown Limited-Time Event), but when we're talking about $100,000,000 being handed out over the next year, they've got to take every step necessary to make sure that everyone is playing fair. I have no problem with the World Cup qualifiers that are taking place later this year to not have a streaming requirement as long as there is no money directly on the line. When you're playing for money and not just a spot in a larger tournament, though, players should be required to stream their matches.
Let the best of the best duke it out
I know the reason Epic went with the "Pub Stomp Romp" theme last week was because the private servers weren't beefed up enough yet, but (I keep saying this but it's just so true) with this much money on the line, the players should have to play against the best to win. Dealing with the randomness that is public lobbies adds in too much variance when you're talking about unheard of (until Epic stepped in) prize pools. It's certainly fun watching players go into public lobbies and pop off for hours on end, but it just feels like an odd way to determine the winner of such a massive prize pool.
I have a hunch that Epic is on a schedule, though, which is why they opted to simply not delay things by a week and chose to do the public games. I think that once the eight-week Summer Skirmish Series is over, the qualifiers for the World Cup will kick off. I can't think of another reason why they wouldn't have just postponed things for a week otherwise.
In any event, no more events should be decided using public matches. Let the best players battle it out against each other or don't do it at all. I mean, they could have used the format that Friday Fortnite uses, but that would concede that Keemstar did something right and it doesn't look like Epic wants to do that given that they pretty much shut down Friday Fortnite by scheduling last week's Summer Skirmish in the same time slot. So outside of using that format, it should be private games featuring all the pros or nothing else.
****
So there you have it. My fullproof (disclaimer: may not be fullproof) plan on how to keep the Summer Skirmish Series moving along without any further problems.
Epic has yet to announce what the format will be for Week 3, but you can bet that it will be different than before given that this entire tournament series is basically a way to test formats before the World Cup begins in earnest later this year.
