Tfue, Fortnite star, said: "I've never hated this game so much" during incidents at the Winter Royale

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"Dude, does this guy cheat?" Tfue asked, more to himself than his more than 90,000 viewers. In an open online qualifier like this, everything was possible.

An answer came a few moments later, announced by the regular tap-tap-tap of a SCAR assault rifle on Tfue's wooden wall. The shots came from the corn, striking the exact spot on the wall behind which Tfue was standing. Tfue edited a window to fight back and was eliminated in a few seconds, never seeing his opponent before the end of the match in eighth place.

In the end, his opponent never saw him either. A recovery later confirmed what Tfue already knew: he had been hacked by an aimbot, which allowed the offender to launch a perfect spray of fire despite zero visibility in the cornfield.

"This guy cheated on my brother! I knew this guy was a deceitful cheater," Tfue said as he removed his helmet, moving away from the computer, frustrated. "F *** this game. … that's why I do not participate in online tournaments.It's so silly."

The experience further helped to lessen the already bitter qualification process of Epic Games' latest esports experience. A $ 1 million event entirely online and open to the public was meant to attract business, and if chatting around a weekend of public meetings in North America and Europe This was an indication, the audience was not disappointed. Charges of hacking and piracy have been widespread in the community, with Epic taking very few preventive measures to deter cheaters.

The outcry provoked by these players almost engulfed the positivity that the event intended to promote by highlighting talented unknowns.

The hackers were a predictable consequence of Epic's first massive open tournament, a 180-degree change from the closed nature of previous autumn and summer skirmishes. Fans who could not afford to go to PAX West or who had not received an invitation to TwitchCon were about to wish for a truly open event and Epic was finally obliged. For Winter Royale, everyone could connect to the customer during session hours and try to secure one of two hundred seats (by region) for the upcoming finals. The game follows the players in a special Winter Royale mode, which automatically records points and announces them in the game, an attractive feature.

The points were awarded on the basis of the usual criteria – placement and eliminations – the best of six three-hour sessions used to determine progress.

Although technically a competitive esports event offering big prizes, Winter Royale is also a test. He shares a set of rules with the current Scavenger Pop-Up Cup. Hardware caps are halved, production speed is increased, and players are healed when they achieve elimination. That's the way Epic evaluates the changes made to a particular format or game in a truly competitive environment as the Fortnite World Cup approaches next year.

However, organizing a serious tournament in an unbalanced mode by definition seems like a dangerous game, likely to make furious the participants already stressed by the stakes. Announcing the qualifications for such a tournament two days before Thanksgiving and four days before the competition did not help.

The fortified meta was already litigious before the start of Winter Royale. Update 6.30 introduced annoying mounted turrets and removed the glider redeployment players used for mobility. The addition of Scavenger rules to the mix has worsened the influence of chance on the player's chances of victory. Individual skill has become secondary compared to finding the right weapons before the enemy or to the chance of being able to rotate easier to conserve materials. Creating the circumstances for a high placement attempt was felt to be random, and when this perfect race presented itself, it could still be solved by an aimbot.

Which brings us back to Tfue, who will not be among the 200 players in the running for $ 500,000 in the North American final on December 11-12. Fortnite's best-ever competitive player, with more than $ 465,000 in prize money and three fall finals in first place (including TwitchCon), failed to qualify with his 27 points just under the 28 mark.