One of the most iconic weapons in Fortnite Battle Royale entered the vault upon release of Season 9, and many of the top streamers and pro players are far from happy.
The pump shotgun has been present in Fortnite since the game’s inception, enjoying plenty of changes over the seasons, making Epic’s decision to vault the weapon all the more surprising.
In a blog post, the developer revealed that the weapon accounted for over 26% of the eliminations in game and would be vaulted in order to allow players to explore additional ways of having fun using items such as the new combat shotgun.
Fortnite pro players react to pump shotgun vaulted
The biggest Fortnite star on the planet, Turner ‘Tfue’ Tenney was quick to share his confusion given how important the weapon can be during competitive play in a short tweet shortly after the patch notes were revealed.
WTF IS GOING ON
— Tfue (@TTfue) May 9, 2019
Many of the competitive community were hoping to see a field-of-view slider added following the recent ban on stretched resolution and Team Liquid’s Ryan ‘Chap’ Chaplo stated the employee who decided to remove the pump should be fired.
Did you seriously just vault the most important gun in your game? Theres no way you guys are this out of touch
— FOV SLIDER Chap (@LiquidChap) May 9, 2019
fire whatever group or person thought it was a good idea to remove the pump shotgun
— FOV SLIDER Chap (@LiquidChap) May 9, 2019
A lot of the Fornite community were actually hoping to see the tactical shotgun enter the vault due to its extremely low damage compared to other weapons, and NRG’s Williams ‘Zayt’ Aubin couldn’t believe what he was seeing.
WE ASK TO REMOVE THE TACS, THEY REMOVE PUMPS AND GIVE US ANOTHER TAC WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
— NRG Zayt (@zayt) May 9, 2019
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Fortnite streamers react to pump shotgun vaulted
As well as the Fortnite pro community, the decision to remove one of the most popular guns has left the vast majority of the top streamers puzzled.
Jack ‘CouRageJD’ Dunlop shared a memorial tweet dedicated the weapon that “was always in our hearts” while Nick ‘NICKMERCS’ Kolcheff summed up his reaction in a short GIF.
RIP Pump Shotgun
September 26, 2017 – May 9th, 2019
Forever in our hearts. pic.twitter.com/R15VWY5ffp
— Jack “CouRage” Dunlop (@CouRageJD) May 9, 2019
— Nickmercs (@NICKMERCS) May 9, 2019
Luminosity Gaming’s Sypher ‘SypherPK’ Ali revealed his confusion over the decision while TSM’s ‘HighDistortion’ believed that Epic vaulted the weapon to prevent fans spamming them to bring back the infamous double pump meta
Pump Shotgun Vaulted.. hmmmmmm
— LG SypherPK (@SypherPK) May 9, 2019
They vaulted pump so after every patch twitch chat isn’t spammed with “Is double pump back!?”
Good guy Epic
— TSM HighDistortion (@HighDistortion) May 9, 2019
It remains to be seen whether people’s opinions will change when they finally get their hands on the new shotgun to see how it compares to the power of the pump.
Nevertheless, a massive change like this, with ballers still not being removed, has proven to be another unpopular decision so far.