Why the 2018 Fortnite Winter Royale is dubbed the 'worst' tournament in competitive history

The first edition of Fortnite Winter Royale took place in November 2018 with a $1 Million prize pool. It was the first and biggest open tournament with cash prizes, and the most prominent pros from around the world took part in it.

Naturally, Loopers were excited to witness their favorite pros and content creators battling it out for such a massive prize pool. However, little did anyone know that things would be ruinous towards the end.

Here's why the Winter Royale tournament in 2018 was the worst tournament in Fortnite Competitive history.

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Fortnite Winter Royale 2018 took place during the era of Infinity Blade

The meta during Winter Royale 2018 was certainly not at its best. Stinkbombs were a part of the loot pool, and pros were not comfortable with someone eliminating them on such juvenile items.

Regardless, the qualifiers went great and the biggest names in the community were all set for the finals. It is still a mystery why Fortnite decided to release the 7.01 update with the Infinity Blade a few hours before the event.

Anyone who's played with the Infinity Blade knows that it was a game-breaking weapon. It spawned on Polar Peek and the weilder was almost guaranteed a Victory Royale. From boosted health to immunity against fall damage, the blade had everything that a player could ask for.

Casuals and newbies were able to exploit the Infinity Blade in public matches. This explains why introducing the weapon in a high-stakes tournament with the most skilled players in the world was a terrible idea.

The Infinity Blade did 75 damage in one swing and the weilder's health and shield regenerated at 1/second. Getting it was the key to victory as nothing was strong enough to counter it.

The perfect example of the same was Psalm. He used the Infinity Blade to get over five kills within 30 seconds during the final storm circle. This is not something that usually happens in competitive tournaments.

To top it off, the 7.01 update also introduced planes that affected the end-game severely. Surprisingly, players who managed to get them early didn't shoot at each other to reach the end-game safely.

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Fortnite Winter Royale 2018 was a learning curve for Epic Games

The sudden release of Infinity Blade and Airplanes is the biggest reason behind the failure of Winter Royale. The tournament was undoubtedly entertaining, but it came at the cost of frustrated pros.

Even the casters were compelled to praise a player when all they were doing was exploiting the Infinity Blade or planes. Pros worked on their aim, building, game sense, and reflexes, for months only to get stomped by someone recklessly using the newly introduced items.

Ever since, Epic Games has been cautious about introducing new features directly into competitive. Items are first tested in public games, and are put in competitive only if they feel balanced enough.