Fortnite Season 5 competitive rules update

Fortnite has issued an update to their competitive rules meant to address and clarify rules regarding cheating, reporting, and participation.

These new competitive rules in Fortnite are meant to be more like clarifications than actual new rules, as Epic had already penalized players who violated them. Overall, these rules are meant to reiterate Epic’s goals for competitive integrity in Fortnite.

We address some of cheating tactics and reports of bad behavior we saw last season in our latest Competitive Integrity Update. Read about it here: https://t.co/xgHdOT2Pyi

— Fortnite Competitive (@FNCompetitive) December 16, 2020

Specific issues in competitive Fortnite

With the Fortnite Season 5 competitive rules update, Epic made sure to emphasize specific issues that have become more prevalent in the competitive Fortnite community. Of note were Epic’s new rulings regarding the use of macros in Fortnite, and the issues surrounding stream sniping.

Macro usage is one of those things which allow players to effectively skip training and skill building. A macro allows Fortnite players to queue up a series of actions to be completed with a single button press, effectively allowing them to quickly build impressive structures without risk of failure.

It can sometimes be difficult to tell if someone is using a macro, but because macros always do the exact same actions upon every button press, it can occasionally become noticeable.

The other specific issue addressed in this competitive rules update is the problems surrounding stream sniping. Stream sniping involves using information gathered through watching a stream or other source to locate or play against someone in Fortnite.

Stream sniping is something which disproportionately affects high-profile competitive Fortnite players over the more average competitors. Despite this, Epic likely wants to take a harder line against this kind of cheating than other kinds, because those streamers ultimately represent Fortnite to the outside world.

https://t.co/epX5JniAM6 ikr

— TSM MackWood (@MackWood1x) December 16, 2020

The future of competitive Fortnite

Aside from rules meant to clarify how Epic will be dealing with cheaters in competitive Fortnite, Epic has also announced that competitive events will be expanded into seven new countries - Belarus, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Libya, South Sudan, and Yemen.

Competitive Fortnite in 2021 will likely rely heavily on online events over in person events, so these kinds of rules updates and expansions will be important for keeping the game going strong.

So long as Epic can maintain a healthy and vibrant competitive community, there’s no reason why the competitive scene for Fortnite can’t become a bigger part of the game.