The controversial YouTuber Keemstar has a problem with Epic and their game Fortnite. The accusation: They have disrespectfully destroyed his community tournament, Friday Fortnite. Furthermore, he feels somehow copied by a new skin, a gnome.
Who is Keemstar? “Daniel M. Keem” (36) is known as Keemstar. He is a YouTuber who is prominent on social media.
He has 2.47 million followers on Twitter. He refers to his YouTube channel “Drama Alert” (4.6 million subscribers) as “the number 1 source for social interaction in online entertainment.”
On his channel, he reports on what YouTube stars and celebrities are up to. Much of the focus here is on YouTubers like Jake Paul, their enemies, feuds, and romantic relationships.
What does Keemstar have to do with Fortnite? At the beginning of Fortnite, during the initial boom, he hosted a tournament: “Friday Fortnite.” It was a community tournament that enjoyed great popularity.
Until summer, there were fights on Friday nights. Some of the best players in the world competed for up to $20,000 in prize money.
At that time, there was no official tournament, and “Friday Fortnite” was a highlight of the week for many Fortnite players and viewers.
That’s why Friday Fortnite came to an end: In early summer 2018, Epic began its own eSports tournament. At first, Epic only claimed Saturday, but then also Friday for themselves.
Keemstar then canceled his tournament, “Friday Fortnite.” He accused Epic of:
- Poaching his key players
- Claiming Friday for themselves, even though his established tournament was already running
- And imposing a prize money limit on him ($20,000), while Epic offered much more ($500,000).
At that time, Keemstar’s sponsor also withdrew. However, he announced that he would revive the tournament.
This has been bothering Keemstar since then: Epic now offers “in-game” tournaments for Fortnite. One of them is called “Friday Night Fortnite.” The tournament started, from Keemstar’s perspective, right when he was trying to revive his “Friday Fortnite.”
This has likely made Keemstar very upset.
On November 9, he tweeted: I have given up. How EpicGames has treated me disrespectfully has made me an enemy forever. I will never support anything they do again.
Keemstar wants to join class action lawsuit – because of gnome skin
This is now bothering Keemstar: Keemstar has now announced that he will join a class action lawsuit against Fortnite and Epic. This is no joke.
Apparently, Keemstar sees himself in the new skin of a garden gnome. He perceives the Fortnite skin “Grimble” as a reference to himself and cites YouTube videos as proof, which, however, have not yet received much attention.
The garden gnome skin was first available in the Fortnite shop today, December 23.
Recently, the actor of “Carlton Banks” from the TV series The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air sued Fortnite, as they had copied his dance.
What’s behind this: Even though Keemstar insists, “the lawsuit is no joke,” the announcement of the lawsuit is likely not to be taken too seriously.
However, it is still interesting how things have developed with “Friday Fortnite” and that Epic has cemented the growing community scene in this area with their own tournaments. And at least one person with a lot of influence resents them for it.
Apparently, Keemstar is not happy about a skin that allegedly references him. But others would love to have such a skin for themselves:
