Home Gaming Epic Games is not paying out prize money to competitive Fortnite players

Epic Games is not paying out prize money to competitive Fortnite players

2 min read
22

Allegations against the publisher stiffing winners of their hard-earned cash have come to the surface, with many claiming it’s an ongoing problem.

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An expression I was once told in a drama class a couple of years ago: You only need to remember your lines when the spotlight’s on you. Basically, when you’re the centre of attention, you better do your best not to screw up royally. Or in the case of Epic Games, royale-y. Recent allegations have come to light following a Reddit post which states that the megalithic publisher has not been paying out any of the promised prize money for winners of their organised esports events. After the post went live, numerous high profile players came forward to reveal that they were still waiting on payment for their wins, with prize money of $9000+ not being paid out to the winners, months having past since their victories.

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The post from Reddit user u/Returnoftruth highlighted the shocking prevalence of the problem, showing a tweet from professional esports player FNATIC MOTOR questioning why two of his colleagues, Jsmoove and Justillegal, had yet to be paid by Epic for their wins in the Test Customs tournament. The two players had allegedly tried to contact Epic through Discord but had their messages ignored.

After this tweet went live, many other large names in the competitive scene, including Pate1k, Secret Domentos, E11 Bloodx and TSM Zexrow, came forward to confirm that similar things had happened to them. One player, who was asked to remain anonymous, has stated that when they attempted to query why Epic had yet to pay out over $9000 prize money to them, the publisher claimed the player had never been present at the tournament at all, despite both screenshots and video evidence proving the contrary.

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Epic Games was quick to comment on the post, stating that they would be making changes to how they receive and organise emails relating to competitive prize money queries by routing them straight to customer support so as to better monitor the requests and improve communication.

Even though this may lead to an improvement in the future, the change seems far too small to have any real impact on those still waiting on their money. It seems that Epic Games needs to start making a much more concerted effort to have these payments organised and delivered much sooner if they want Fortnite Competitive to be considered a high-profile esport.

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Last Updated: May 27, 2020

22 Comments

  1. Pariah

    June 14, 2019 at 12:08

    They have to get their money for exclusives from somewhere. Anti-consumer is anti-consumer, after all.

    Reply

  2. Alien Emperor Trevor

    June 14, 2019 at 12:09

    Well let’s be fair, the game is free to play, not pay to win.

    Reply

    • Yahtzee

      June 14, 2019 at 12:22

      Glob damnit… I hate it when I have to congratulate you on a pun, even though I go through like 50 of them a day…

      So thank you. I hate it

      Reply

    • Pariah

      June 14, 2019 at 12:22

      Prize money is cosmetic

      Reply

  3. Original Heretic

    June 14, 2019 at 12:30

    “Drama class”?! Ugh, what a waste of time those things are. You can either act or you can’t.

    Reply

    • Brad Lang

      June 14, 2019 at 12:43

      Heretic is out for me this week.

      Reply

      • Original Heretic

        June 14, 2019 at 14:43

        Nah dude, sorry, didn’t mean to bring it across that way!
        I’ve just worked with quite a few drama “students” over the years and I can literally count on one hand how many of them were actually decent performers.
        Acting talent is an innate thing, that is my personal view on it. You know ow how many times one these students has asked me for help with their character in a show?
        It’s just reinforced my opinion.

        Reply

        • Brad Lang

          June 14, 2019 at 15:12

          Nah, totally get it. I tutor dramatic writing at Rhodes and the amount of students who think they can write are so lost. Not really the same as acting, but I get you

          Reply

          • Original Heretic

            June 14, 2019 at 15:12

            Much as I love acting, it’s writing that’s my real baby.
            Doing my damnedest to get my novel out there. Book 1 of six. It’s a story that, in totality, will blow people away.
            You won’t believe how many times I’ve heard “I can’t believe you can’t get this published, there’s so much crap out there, this is brilliant.”
            All we can do is keep at it…

    • For the Emperor!

      June 14, 2019 at 13:16

      Drama class is not to teach acting, it is to refine acting. 2 refine, or not 2 refine. THAT is the question 🙂

      Reply

      • Original Heretic

        June 14, 2019 at 14:43

        Should not need classes for that….

        Reply

      • Original Heretic

        June 14, 2019 at 15:12

        Acting basically comes down to “how well can you lie?”.
        Great actors make for great liars.

        Reply

      • Pariah

        June 14, 2019 at 13:28

        We all know refined things are bad for you. Bread, sugar, pasta, etc. The more refined, the worse it is. So drama class is obviously bad for you… Silly billy!

        Reply

  4. CrAiGiSh

    June 14, 2019 at 13:06

    Epic … fail … XD

    Reply

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