The two top duos of the Fortnite Champion Series Week 1 in NA East have been banned for 60 days by Epic for alleged collusion and teaming after a video surfaced on Twitter that appeared to show the players knowingly trading damage with each other to prevent the effects of a storm surge.
The two duos finished a chasm above the rest of the competing teams, with ‘Keys’ and ‘Slackes’ initially placing first with 63 points and Nate ‘Kreo’ Kou and Logan ‘Bucke’ Eschenburg placing second with 56 points. The third-placed duo finished with just 40 points.
A video then showed the two duos consistently meeting at Slurpy Swamp in virtually every game of the Week 1 finals, where they would engage in rather tame gunfights that would tag each other with damage in order to dodge being storm surged, which begins to eat away at the health of passive players who have dealt the least amount of damage during a game.
lil free storm surge lmao pic.twitter.com/tCZP4mYAHC
— droxide (@DROXlDE) March 23, 2020
Epic acted incredibly quickly and dished out 60 day bans to each of the four players involved, meaning they will miss the rest of the FNCS in Chapter 2 – Season 2 and potentially some of Season 3 as well.
The players in question were unhappy with their bans and challenged Epic’s rapid response. Bucke released a short statement explaining what was going on in the video evidence, saying they often engage in “bloom battles” at Slurpy due to the “unlimited shields” on offer there, making it a low risk place to take damage.
“We know where people land due to maps that are made by third parties,” he explains. “If we have unlimited shield, the impact on our game that taking a bloom battle with another team [has] is very minimal. Our loot route directs us to that one truck with the chest at it. By the time that they are done with their loot route, they end up at the slurp truck and we end up shooting each other since we cross paths. Even when other teams land at slurpy swamp, we bloom battle them because there’s unlimited shield.”
Bucke’s teammate Kreo criticised Epic’s rapid response, saying that the pair never got the chance to explain themselves and says they were never asked any questions during the investigation into the alleged collusion.
Wish we atleast had the opportunity to explain/defend ourselves without everyone hopping on the bandwagon.
Also wish Fortnite did some sort of an investigation/asked us questions
💔
— Kreo (@KreoFN) March 23, 2020
Section 8.2.2 of the FNCS Chapter 2 – Season 2 Official Rules forbids any form of collusion, including “players working together” while on opposing teams and agreements between teams on where to land.
Epic is yet to make a formal statement on Kreo, Bucke, Keys, and Slackes’ bans.
