Epic Games blocks 1200 players at Fortnite World Cup

I heard they cheated: The game developer Epic Games has banned over 1200 participants of the first online tournament of his game Fortnite.

The Fortnite World Cup, an eSports event with a total of $30 million in prize money, has been running since April 13. Epic Games has now banned over 1200 users who are said to have violated the rules.

Epic Games has imposed a 14-day suspension on 1163 user accounts because they have circumvented regional restrictions and are said to have competed in several regions. Of these, 196 users had already won prizes, which they now have to forego.

A further 48 user accounts were blocked due to unauthorized account sharing. Nine of these users had to forgo prizes they had already won. Eight user accounts were blocked because they had formed illicit alliances with their opponents; one of them had to give away a prize. An individual user had already qualified for the semi-finals with the help of cheat software and was permanently banned.

The Fortnite World Cup runs until 26 July and new users can still qualify. The penalties imposed so far are intended to educate players to behave in accordance with the rules for the rest of the tournament. The winner will receive three million US dollars in prize money. (akr)