Streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was the absolute star on Twitch from 2017 to 2019 and the face of the online shooter Fortnite. On May 24, 2024, he now says: Fortnite is for losers. The reason for this change of heart is the new season in Fortnite, Chapter 5, Season 3: The current “vehicle meta” does not appeal to the streamer at all.
This is what Ninja says:
- Ninja describes the current situation with the new season in Fortnite like this: You land somewhere, collect loot, grab a vehicle, don’t attack anyone, and play like “the biggest losers in the world”.
- If he were a 5-year-old who still loved cool cars, he would find the season great.
- But he is 32, an adult, and enjoys shooting at things in video games. But now he has to drive around in a vehicle and pray to encounter other people who have worse vehicles than he does.
“So Ninja has turned into a Boomer”
How is this being discussed? In the comments on Twitter, Ninja is largely mocked and criticized for his playstyle, which is seen as outdated by his critics. People are poking fun: Ninja could only spam buildings like crazy and is not adaptable.
People are writing:
- “Has he ever tried to do something other than just spam builds to counter everything?”
- “Ninja shouldn’t complain. The man hasn’t been good at Fortnite since Chapter 1 ended.”
- “He is just complaining, can’t he adapt?”
- “So Ninja has turned into a Boomer.”
Besides the people who mock him slightly, there are also some who agree with him and say: The current season is indeed a bit strange.
Here you can see Ninja’s rant:
How good was Ninja? Ninja had his dominant phase very early in Fortnite, around 2017. Back then, hardly anyone had a clue about Fortnite and building: Ninja, as a shooter professional coming from Halo, dominated lobbies of random players and racked up many kills with an aggressive playstyle.
However, this high-flying period didn’t last long. After a few months, new players came to Fortnite who were better than he was. As Fortnite became professionalized in the lead-up to the 2019 World Cup and many young professionals emerged, Ninja fell further behind and failed to qualify for the World Cup.
Ninja is a good shooter player and even dominated Fortnite in the first months. However, he has not been among the world’s best since 2019.
The eternal Fortnite conflict: Fun or E-Sports?
What this is about: This is a conflict that Fortnite has always had:
- Aspiring pro players want as stable shooter gameplay as possible, where skill in shooting and building determines the victory.
- But Epic wants to keep shaking things up with crazy ideas, bringing in unbalanced items and features that allow casual players to win and disrupt the balance. Earlier, this included things like mechs or planes.
The current “vehicle meta” is the new manifestation of this discussion, which has been ongoing in Fortnite for years. And Ninja, who has been playing Fortnite for 7 years, has become a symbol figure. Ninja appeared to be a laid-back guy with blue hair and his attitude, but upon closer inspection, his defining character trait has always been extreme ambition: Fortnite star Ninja: Funny on the outside, fierce and incredibly ambitious on the inside.
