Epic addresses Fortnite cheating allegations against Summer Skirmish winner

Epic Games responded to allegations from fans and players that a recent winner in the publisher’s weekly Fortnite Summer Skirmish tournament cheated to win a total of $130,000.

Viewers on Reddit accused player iDroPz_BoDiEs of using a keyboard and mouse configuration while playing on PlayStation 4. People not only suggested the setup would give iDroPz_BoDiEs an advantage over other players, but argued it was just sign that pointed to “collusion and corruption in his win,” according to a top Reddit post. The accusations led iDroPz_BoDiEs to replay some of his streams, which viewers pored over. Those streams led to other accusations, including a theory that iDroPz_BoDiEs had random players “queue up the same time as him and give him free kills so he can place higher in the tournament.”

“This is something that has happened before in the past, and still does happen in tourneys run by CMG/GB,” the Reddit post argued. “It has happened in the past, and for a lot less money.”

When iDroPz’s Twitch channel disappeared just a few hours after the controversy started, people pointed to it as further proof that something suspicious was afoot.

The noise seemed impossible for Epic to ignore. The company released a lengthy statement regarding its investigation into the situation, which led Epic’s team to believe iDroPz_Bodies’ gameplay was legitimate.

“We appreciate the community’s concern around the integrity of the competition, but questioning the results of an individual participant without evidence unfairly tears apart at what should be a crowning moment of achievement for an individual who earned their way there and performed when it counted,” a rep from Epic Games wrote on Reddit.

Epic said it discovered the following during its internal investigation:

Our internal Summer Skirmish analytics kept track of all opponents which participants eliminated. iDroPz_BoDiEs had 129 eliminations during the event and every single elimination was on a different opponent. This is not indicative of him having been intentionally fed eliminations and/or collusion with other players.

Our analytics events also noted when players left the match prior to the bus deploying, and recorded those matches. iDroPz_BoDiEs did not join more than the specified 10 matches for the event, the narrative that he was leaving if the server wasn’t full or the bus wasn’t on a favorable path is false.

Stat tracking sites are unreliable for recording historic performance, as they only update when the website requests stats for a user from the API. This makes any ‘Most Eliminations in a Single Match’ records on an account unlikely to be correct, as multiple matches in a time period are combined into one update. iDroPz_BoDiEs has achieved more than 20 eliminations in a match multiple times across his Fortnite career.

In previous Showdown LTM’s which followed a similar scoring format on public servers, there has been no discernible difference in final score between top performers on PC and Console platforms. During this event we saw 11 matches break the 20 elimination mark, with 8 of them on PC and 3 on Console.

There is no evidence that would suggest to us that iDroPz_BoDiEs played the competition using a mouse and keyboard. Furthermore, we do not restrict input device for players on our platforms in an effort to promote accessibility for our entire audience.

The statement ended with Epic’s representative reminding fans and players that, “Unsportsmanlike conduct from participants is not within that spirit, and will not be tolerated in Fortnite competition.”

High-level competitors like Tyler “Ninja” Blevins have responded to the event, expressing their thanks for Epic’s investigation.

“Twitch chat was spreading so many rumors even I started to question some of the things that were going on,” Blevins tweeted. “Good luck to everyone again in next weeks!”

Other industry members, like Hassan Bokhari, Twitch’s account partnerships manager, tweeted about the situation. Bokhari said it was a reminder that “witch hunts are never a good thing.”

“This is why I truly have a love/hate relationship with the internet and people’s abilities to go insane if they don’t like the way things turned out,” Bokhari tweeted. “Congrats iDropzBodies on the win. Do something awesome with the winnings.”

Still, some Fortnite players and fans aren’t impressed with Epic’s tournament history. One Reddit user illustrated some major concerns people have brought up since Epic’s official Fortnite competitions have launched.

“All of Epic’s tournaments so far have had some element of fail to them,” Reddit user metoothpick wrote. “I’m hoping they get this figured out. Epic needs to get things together if they’re going to make competitive Fortnite successful.”

Epic’s Summer Skirmish tournament continues today.