Is Fortnite ready for more competitive events? Why competitive players make a game better

After the unfortunate drama related to the Fortnite Champion Series, the Fortnite Competitive Twitter page announced a series of changes to its competitive integrity terms, and also blamed the failure of its anti-cheat service on a bug. Nevertheless, with the various controversies, some Fortnite players have lost faith in the game’s competitive nature.

heat 4 pic.twitter.com/B9WUF9QVkk

— Bugha (@bugha) August 11, 2020

Fortnite Hype Cups bring back competitive events

Fortnite has recently announced that the Season 4 Hype Cups would be starting up soon. This comes after a long period of silence from the Fortnite Competitive Twitter page.

Trust and respect are two things that are hard to earn and easy to lose, and unfortunately Fortnite has lost a lot of both from the competitive community. Between the lack of communication, poor balancing, sudden and unannounced changes, and accusations of cheaters running rampant, the Fortnite competitive community seems like it’s dwindling.

Additionally, the announcements made by Fortnite seem to admit that the competitive scene is in a poor spot without actually announcing any plans to address that. The competitive community feels like Fortnite takes them for granted, and many have already begun moving on.

Even Ninja, arguably the first person to become famous for playing Fortnite, seems to spend more time in Valorant than the game which honored him with a skin. Is there any hope for Fortnite to regain the trust of the competitive community? Does Fortnite even value that trust?

The top 1% have their inner circle & they know where they all drop & their loot paths.When the people who qualify are the same group who play scrims, they just share loot & don’t engage—not realistic. Regular ppl have to deal with off-spawn fights (deaths) which skews points.

— Nick Eh 30 (@NickEh30) August 2, 2020

depending on what the next competitive format is, this is probably gonna be my last season playing fortnite

— slaqs (@asapslaqs) September 3, 2020

Why competitive players are needed

Twitter memes about the competitive community are abundant, with posts claiming that “these are the steps needed to fix Fortnite.” The truth is, there isn’t any series of drastic changes needed to keep the competitive community, and it is entirely possible to keep competitive players without alienating casuals.

The competitive community just wants Fortnite to be fun for more than ten minutes at a time. Good balance doesn’t just keep players from getting angry, it keeps the game from getting stale. Communication about upcoming changes doesn’t just make competitive players more comfortable, it helps players understand what Fortnite values.

Competitive Fortnite isn’t dead, but it is dying, and that will harm Fortnite in the long run. Casual communities are easily swayed and often drift to each new fad, while competitive communities can sustain a game for over a decade. If competitive players are abandoning your game, it probably won’t take long for casual players to drift away too.