In Fortnite, the entry into eSports is attempted, but the first attempt failed catastrophically. Now Epic says: This was mainly due to the building frenzy of the professionals and their defensive play. Here’s how they want to get it under control.
100 million into eSports: Epic Games wants to transform Fortnite into an eSport and is opening its wallet for that. They are providing 100 million dollars as prize money for the 1st Fortnite season 2018/2019 in eSports. They launched the season last Saturday with an 8-million-dollar trial balloon.
The first tournament was a disaster
Boring and laggy: However, the first tournament turned out to be boring. Furthermore, lag spikes ruined the fun. For viewers and participants, the tournament was a catastrophe. The event was canceled after only 4 out of 10 scheduled matches. Players sometimes exited without being able to move. Those who survived built themselves in and tried to stay alive as long as possible to achieve victory and claim the big main reward: tens of thousands of dollars.
Epic says: That was nothing
Statement from Epic: The creators of Fortnite have now admitted the failure in a “postmortem” (via Epic). It didn’t go as planned, but they learned a lot. While they emphasize this was the first time, they admit: That was nothing. And especially because so much money is at stake, they feel obligated.
The big money changes gameplay: Speaking of money. Even though Epic has conducted many tests, the large amount of money involved in the tournament has significantly influenced player behavior: They played much more defensively than usual. This is because in duos, a lot of resources (ammunition, health points, materials) must be expended to eliminate someone. Therefore, it is tactically wiser to avoid these conflicts. Epic wants to address this.
3 problems kill servers. There were basically three major problems that pressured the server performance:
- There were too many players alive when the game entered the final phase
- Then players built too much, especially at the end
- And players who were dead remained in the game to watch others
Servers will be optimized for “tight builds”
Just don’t explode: A problem arises when many structures are clustered together at the end and someone causes an explosion. Then every single component reports damage numbers to all connected clients. This creates a significant load on the CPU. Epic is currently working on this issue by optimizing server performance. Epic believes that this will also improve other modes, like the 50vs50, in Fortnite.
Building frenzy causes server issues: Especially the intensive and tight tunnel constructions seem to have killed performance. Players then build “twisting tunnels”, they are digging proper trenches.
The problem with building and fun
Building is also boring: The building frenzy not only puts pressure on the servers but also on the enjoyment of the viewers. Because the tunneling makes it difficult to follow the match in Fortnite via Twitch. The building decreases the action. It apparently also causes lag.
In this video, you can see how crazy it was built by top player TSM_Myth:
Spectator tool also a problem: Moreover, Epic cannot rely on the “spectator tool” that worked so well at E3. It only works in a LAN environment. During the “Summer Skirmish” tournament, one had to jump to individual streamers. This made it difficult to narrate “a story” in the stream. This is also one explanation for the rather boring tournament.
Epic, however, does not respond to the partly sharp criticism of the casters. For instance, PC Gamer has portrayed them as clueless smart alecks.
The measures to make eSports more exciting
This is how Epic wants to solve the problem:
- More rewards for kills: Epic plans to now increase the rewards for kills, but wants to use a “simple” points system so it doesn’t become too complex. They are experimenting with the formats.
- Next tournament on public servers: This weekend, Epic will hold the second tournament on public servers, after which they will return to private matches next week.
- Less building: They are currently considering how to handle building in eSports. They seem to have no solution yet for what should happen when so many builders clash. They want to “carefully weigh” this. Epic has already announced changes: Fortnite wants to change: You should be able to win without super building skills
We learned a lot: At Epic, they see last week’s “defeat” sporting. Epic says that they learned a lot from it and seem confident they will get the problem under control.
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