Epic Games shut down claims of Fortnite pros paying to be unbanned

Fortnite developers Epic Games have unequivocally rejected allegations of “unethical behavior” after documents arose that claimed to show professional players paying to have opponents banned and paying to be unbanned. 

Fortnite, despite its overwhelming success and longevity, has had its fair share of issues with cheating.

The hacking problems have even permeated the game’s competitive community, with high-profile bans garnering plenty of attention in the past.

A recent example was Swiss pro player Noahreyli, who received an instant ban back in May. It was quickly reversed, but it goes to demonstrate that no one is immune to allegations.

Now, the competitive community has been embroiled in a scandal relating to pro players allegedly paying Epic Games employees to wrongfully ban opponents and to unban those found guilty of cheating. 

Epic Games accused of wrongful bans and unbans in Fortnite esports

A new document – 63 pages in length and featuring a plethora of Discord and Twitter screenshots – claimed to reveal wrongful bans and unbans by Epic Games staff relating to a number of European Fortnite pros. 

Shared by community figure ‘CatGamerOP’, it quickly garnered social media attention on September 10, with a host of fans and players alike being drawn to the allegations. 

However, it attracted an equally quick rejection from Epic Games, whose Fortnite Competitive account said: “These claims are unequivocally false. We take any claim of unethical behavior seriously, and investigated these allegations internally with our threat analytics and competitive teams.”

Their response finished: “We fully stand behind the hard work of our team to ensure competitive integrity for players.” 

Some members of the community did question why Epic even countenanced such a document but, with the devs taking quick action and offering such a brusque response, we can consider the matter closed for now.