Banned duo qualify for Fortnite World Cup after cheating suspension ends

Two professional Fortnite Battle Royale players have managed to qualify for the Fortnite World Cup after they were reinstated from the ban they’d received earlier in the qualification phase.

Pro players Damion ‘XXiF’ C. and Ronald ‘Ronaldo’ Mach finished with 91 points in the NA East region of Week 8 of the World Cup Qualifiers, good enough for third place in the region and a cool $6,500.

This means that the pair have booked a trip to the duos tournament of the $30 million World Cup in July, as the top three teams in NA East all automatically qualify.

However, what’s most interesting about these players qualifying is that they had been banned in the early weeks of the qualifying stage for having been found cheating.

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They were handed a 14-day competitive ban after the third week, meaning that they were first eligible to compete again in Week 6, and have now managed to clinch qualification in Week 8.

Ronaldo and XXiF placed third in the NA East qualifier, good enough for $6,500 and a ticket to the World Cup finals in July.

Considering that both players have a history of being caught cheating, however, it’s likely that Epic Games and fellow pros will take a very close look at all of their qualification matches, just to make sure they didn’t resort to their previous foul ways. 

Why were XXiF and Ronaldo banned?

XXiF and Ronaldo were initially suspended from competing after a clip went viral showing XXiF clearly teaming with other players during the Week 3 solos qualifier.

Epic Games issued their official competitive ruling on May 1, stating that “a group of players attempted to undermine the competition by colluding across several matches.”

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XXiF, who had qualified for the solos tournament during that third week, was forced to give up his qualification spot, and he and Ronaldo were subsequently dropped from Rise Nation’s pro Fortnite BR roster after the competitive ruling was announced.

Ronaldo (left) placed first at the Duos tournament during the Secret Skirmish event in February, having been paired up with Ghost Gaming’s Saf.

Community reacts to XXiF and Ronaldo qualifying

When Epic first announced their competitive ruling, many in the Fortnite BR community were stunned that XXiF and Ronaldo had only been issued 14-day suspensions, considering that they had been caught outright cheating.

Now, as expected, many have taken to Twitter to react to the fact that the very same players have managed to qualify, and here are some of the best reaction tweets.

Of course, let’s not forget SypherPK predicting this identical scenario way back when the suspension was first announced. 

All that said, XXiF and Ronaldo qualifying for the World Cup won’t be set in stone until Epic Games themselves confirm it, so it will be worth monitoring the situation in the coming hours and days.

As always, we will continue to bring you the latest on this ongoing story, as more information becomes available.