The Fortnite Championship Series is big business for professionals who compete in Epic Games’ battle royale game – in addition to millions of dollars in game, participation guarantees at least some money for participants. This is unless you are disqualified from the process. One team found this out the hard way.
On Sunday, Wrigley, the FNCS competitor, posted a reckless tweet that read, “How to literally kill your $ elf @donaldmustard”, marking Epic Games creative director Donald Mustard. His entire Twitter account is gone now, but in response, Epic Games rebuked Wrigley, disqualifying him from the tournament.
His companions were also caught in the crossfire. Wrigley was part of a trio, which included Fifteen days professionals who follow the Dictate and Userz handles. The duo says it had nothing to do with Wrigley’s initial outburst, but he can no longer participate in the tournament, nor can he find a replacement for the offensive team member.
Obtained for comment, an Epic Games representative directed Polygon to the company’s community rules, which clearly state that “interacting with others in a way that is predatory, threatening, intimidating, obscene, humiliating, derogatory, privacy-invasive or abusive “are all not allowed. Breaking these guidelines may be grounds for prohibitions or any other punishment that Epic Games considers appropriate.
In a private message to Polygon, Userz shared the screenshot that greeted him after loading the game.
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Image: Epic Games via Userz
According to Userz, Wrigley’s tweet was the result of being furious after being attacked in the first game of the grand final. He also claims that the pair did not hear about the tweet until the next day, when it had already been deleted. Since then, there has been radio silence from Wrigley – but the biggest Fifteen days community is gathering around the team. While no one seems to support Wrigley’s original tweet, some fans believe it was unfair to ban the entire team. Userz estimates that, over the past two months, he has been “demanding” practice time for up to 12 hours a day in anticipation of the big event.
“The awards and everything was very motivating for me,” he said. After qualifying, he said he started working “even harder”.
On Twitter, Userz pressed fans to contact Epic Games about the decision, noting that he and his teammate were dedicating “infinite amount of time” to the game to have a chance at “money to change life”. Instead of all of this going down the drain, he said, the team would like the opportunity to choose a replacement for Wrigley.
“I will be honest,” Dictate wrote on Twitter, “I was kind of laughing yesterday when I received the email, but now I want to cry.” The teenager added that he did not know if he was going to eat that week, as he was counting on the tournament money.
“I’m really confused as to why my teammate and I, who had nothing to do with the comment our other colleague made, didn’t get our $ 600 prize?” Dictate told Polygon via Twitter about what the payout would have been if the team had been in last place. “We don’t cheat to make it to the grand finals, so it doesn’t make sense that our guaranteed prize has been completely taken away from us.”
Wrigley apparently promised his teammates a fee for disqualification, but in the meantime, others are taking action to send money to the duo.