In Fortnite, allegations have been made against Kyle “Mongraal” Jackson (15). He is considered one of the best players in Europe. He is said to have received information from a coach during the current tournament about what other teams are doing.
What is the player being accused of? The “Fortnite Champion Series” is currently underway, a large tournament series with 4-man teams.
In week 4 of the European semifinals, the “Fortnite Wonderkind” Mongraal is said to have received information from his coach, DestinyJesus, about what other teams are currently doing as he had been watching their streams.
With this information, Mongraal was able to behave differently in the game than he would have without it. This behavior is known as “stream sniping” and is clearly against the rules of Epic Games.
The rules prohibit receiving “outside help.” At the Fortnite World Cup, Epic Games even removed a player from an ongoing match because he had looked at a monitor.
Mongraal allegedly received information from the coach
Where do these accusations come from? The site Dexerto claims they received a clip from an anonymous source showing that these conversations took place. Coach DestinyJesus was seen in the chats of other streamers.
The clip was taken from a YouTube video by Mongraal. However, this part was later deleted.
No one from Mongraal’s team livestreamed the match, even though the players are known to frequently showcase their streams on Twitch.
Therefore, the accusations cannot be unequivocally proven.
Coach DestinyJesus in the spotlight
Why is the coach’s role delicate? The Fortnite coach Hugh “DestinyJesus” Gilmour is known for making “millionaires”.
As a Fortnite coach, he has coached many players who were successful at the Fortnite World Cup in the summer of 2019 and achieved strong placements, including Mongraal.
Currently, Coach DestinyJesus and Mongraal are with the clan FaZe.
The coach is now being accused on reddit of not helping players through training, but primarily informing the teams which loot routes to take to avoid other teams that he coaches.
Because DestinyJesus coaches so many strong teams, “his” teams could coordinate their paths through him to avoid fights against other strong teams and thereby have better chances of surviving longer and achieving better placements.
Fortnite eSports currently susceptible to issues
What’s behind it: The incident reveals two problems in competitive Fortnite gameplay that cause unrest:
- A coach who oversees multiple players or teams – this leads to collusion and unfair advantages
- And the streaming of tournaments, as someone could watch and relay information
Both issues are evidently problematic and create opportunities for manipulation and cheating.
A coach who establishes tactics and running routes for 10 teams and certainly does not tell every team to land at “Slurpy Swamp” seems to be a clear competitive advantage. However, DestinyJesus works for FaZe and is no longer active on a freelance basis.
However, as long as streams of competitive events are broadcast live and there is no control over what all participating teams are doing, stream sniping will always be a problem in Fortnite.
Typically, in other games, tournaments are played on-site – where such things can be prevented.
