Fortnite: Mobile community struggles vs. controller players

One of the difficulties of Fortnite being available on everything from high end PCs and consoles to smartphones and tablets is that the play experience amongst the different communities ends up wildly varied. Many Fortnite players attempt to bridge the gaps by using different tools, and for the mobile community it seems like players can’t compete now without a controller.

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Fortnite Mobile tournaments

soon enough there won't be a Fortnite 'mobile' community, only a Fortnite mobile + controller community…

— Yαsh (@YSBoomOfficial) August 7, 2020

Fortnite occasionally hosts small tournaments divided by community and region in order to support the competitive community and give top players a chance to play against one another in a tournament environment. For the oft-forgotten Fortnite mobile community, these events present a rare opportunity for the scene to compete without running into PC or console players.

Despite this, it seems like many mobile players have adopted controllers to play the game, providing another barrier to entry to mobile players as few can compete using the on board touchscreen controls.

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Controller use in Fortnite

(Image Credit: r/FortniteCompetitive)

Controller use has been a contentious issue amongst Fortnite players for many reasons, although usually the discussion is in reference to the PC community. Fortnite provides many quality-of-life features to mobile players that allow them to compete against the precision afforded by a mouse and keyboard, something which included a generous aim assist.

Fortnite's mobile version has its own unique problems when it comes to precise control, but through clever design, it's been able to offer solutions to these issues. Unfortunately, that isn't enough to compete with players who use a controller, as almost all of the top players from the last mobile tournament made use of a controller to earn their top spots.

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What can (or should) be done about this?

IS THIS CHEATING? Using controller on fortnite mobile for easy WINS—————————————————Full video on YouTube! 👇🏻👇🏻https://t.co/c2ewh9uk8D pic.twitter.com/8eUDN7oxru

— Xen (@XenGGs) February 1, 2020

Part of Fortnite's allure is that you can play it whichever way you want. However, this was accomplished through constant tweaking and testing with disadvantaged control methods.

Perhaps that is what is needed for the mobile community. The flagship control scheme of that platform, the touchscreens on smart devices, are often too imprecise and clunky to allow players to perform well. Additionally, the act of controlling the game by touching the screen obscures parts of the game, significantly reducing a player’s awareness when playing this way.

Using a controller alleviates both of those issues, and the results show. Hopefully Epic is already thinking of a potential solution to this issue, as it would be a serious downside if competitive events for Fortnite Mobile could never allow a player using a mobile control scheme to win.