Fortnite Competitive to Change With Epic Games Collusion Rule to Combat Signaling
By Nathan Fusco
The Fortnite competitive scene is seeing a small shake-up as Epic Games is cracking down on signaling during tournament and competitive matches.
The purpose of the rule is to limit the ability of players to signal to others during a match to curb attempts of players to explicitly work together.
"For 2020 (starting 1/20/20), we are taking action against any kind of in-game communication between opponents via signaling in official tournament matches," Epic Games wrote in a blog post.
This includes, but is not limited to:
- Pick-axe swinging
- Emoting
- Toy tossing
- Jumping
Some of the initial rules make sense like players intentionally dropping or sharing items with enemy players, or even working together to take out other enemy players without ever engaging each other.
But the changes have erupted as streamers and professional players have already started discussing the implications. Streamers like timthetatman, 72hours, and symfuhny were quick to discuss the difficulty of differentiating between some swinging their pickaxe out of habit and someone using it to communicate with someone else.
All battle royales struggle with even playing fields for combatants and Fortnite is no different. It's important for Epic Games to address, but it's unclear how feasible this set of rules will be to enforce.