In Fortnite: Battle Royale, the developers have promptly removed the new Storm Flipper from the game for eSports. The new item is probably too strong for tournaments, but optimal for fun rounds.
Which item is it? The Storm Flipper was newly introduced with Patch 9.20. It is a type of bomb that either creates a storm or, if you throw it into the storm, establishes a safe zone. This lasts for 20 seconds and serves as a good offensive as well as defensive item.
What is the problem with the new item? The radius and effect duration are really large, which greatly disrupts gameplay. Thus, the Storm Flipper was not well received by professionals, especially since one of the highly contested Fortnite qualification rounds for the World Championship is taking place this weekend.
Especially in the endgame, having a large additional storm zone or a safe harbor in the storm is quite extreme and upends many tactics and habits.
Controversial item may return after World Championship qualifiers
This is what the developers have done: Shortly after the release of the Storm Flipper, it was temporarily removed from the loot lists of competitive formats by the developers. Therefore, you will not see the Storm Flipper in the World Championship qualification rounds this weekend.
How are the fans reacting? The professionals welcome Epic’s decision, but wonder on Reddit why the item was even introduced into the game in this seemingly completely overpowered state:
“Someone has to ask this question: How could you not realize how ridiculously overpowered this item is before you released it?”
Is the Storm Flipper possibly returning to eSports? Furthermore, Epic’s statement only indicates that the Storm Flipper is “temporarily” disabled in the tournament lists.
It is thus quite possible that the item will be back in the competitive lists after the World Championship qualifier weekend and could also be regularly included in the next qualifier round or even in the World Championship in July.
Epic still rejects permanently separate loot lists for casual and competitive.
