UCLA Esports called Fortnite uncompetitive and subsequently removed the game from their upcoming season, citing a lack of a consistent collegiate organizer and issues with game balance, among other things. The news may surprise some, while but not all, as this has been discussed as a significant potential issue that Epic Games should address soon.
For some time now, some of the most well known competitive players and influential streamers of the game have discussed numerous issues that could prevent Fortnite from being taken seriously as an esport in the long term. This move by UCLA is a prime example.
What are the criticisms against the game in terms of competitive play? Well, for one there is a stigma about how some matches feel as though luck is too great a determining factor relative to skill.
In the game, all weapons have a tier of rarity that directly affects its damage output. Both guns and their rarities spawn at random on the map, meaning that there is no guaranteed place that will provide a certain weapon, only a good chance. Did you happen to land, open a few chests and find only but a grey pistol, only to die almost instantly to someone who found a Golden Scar? That is simply how it goes, and while we accept it as casual players, it can be problematic in a competitive scene.
This is not to say that luck rules the entire game, as players can mitigate the odds of a troublesome start by minding their environment and being aware of surrounding players, but that only goes so far.
While the randomness of weapons can be somewhat mitigated, there is another issue that is problematic. Epic keeps the game fresh by constantly adding new items, changing the map, vaulting items, and rebalancing often. The result is that the game almost always feels as though it were in constant flux. There is not enough time between the introduction of one thing and another for a meta to properly establish, and so gameplay can sometimes feel chaotic when new changes are introduced too quickly.
Finally, there is the manner in which Epic Games deals with players who are caught cheating. Two Fortnite players were banned from the game after it was discovered that they cheated during qualifiers for the Fortnite World Cup. However, the ban was only for two weeks, and the players returned in time to qualify for the $30 million tournament. This has rubbed some professional players the wrong way, such as Dr. Lupo, and with good reason.
These are but a few factors that could have inspired UCLA Esports to pull the plug on Fortnite as a competitive game. Epic Games seems often to do right by their players, offering prompt, transparent communication and a willingness to admit when they were wrong. The issue here may never be resolved, and instead Fortnite may not become tailored towards esports, though that seems doubtful, as there is a lot of money to be made in the emerging competitive scene.
