On June 3rd, a LAN event took place at Fortnite in Dallas. However, the situation escalated when professional player Diego Playz felt he was robbed of victory and $8,000 in prize money by a young opponent. After the match, the professional approached the other player and hit him. It was expected that the player would face consequences for his actions. At the moment, however, Twitch streamer and crypto-millionaire Trainwreck is offering to transfer him double the prize money in Bitcoin.
What happened? We elaborated on the incident on MeinMMO on Pentecost Sunday, detailing the incident:
- At an amateur tournament in Fortnite – No Build, professional player Diego Playz was in the final round and in a good position to claim $8,000 in prize money. However, a young player “landed on him” and spoiled his victory. Diego Playz perceived that as “griefing” – a violation of the unwritten rules in Fortnite.
- Diego Playz was so upset about his loss that he went to the young player’s PC and punched him in the face. When the boy chased him afterward, security personnel from the Dreamhack and other spectators intervened, separating the two and leading Diego Playz away from the enraged boy.
- Diego Playz apologized for his behavior. He said he was frustrated, but violence is not a solution.
The Season 3 Chapter 3 in the gameplay trailer:
Observers say: “He should be banned from all tournaments”
What was expected after the incident? The first reaction to the incident was that many observers said: “Dude, you can get banned for that.”
On the Facebook page of MeinMMO, users commented:
- “Bad luck for the pro… Violence can never be condoned. If you can’t control your emotions, you should be locked away.”
- “Lifetime ban from any tournaments.”
- “He’ll probably have been a pro for the last time.”
Also on Twitter, his followers at least suspect that this incident could lead to a lifetime ban from LAN tournaments.
Pro’s e-sports team is still making jokes about it
This really happened: Currently, there are no negative consequences for the player. The Dreamhack only mentioned that they have “clarified” the incident. Fortnite developers Epic seem to have been tight-lipped about everything lately – even racist outbursts go uncommented.
The player’s team did issue a “statement on the situation” (via twitter). However, it was a troll attempt: The statement only discussed the downtime of Fortnite.
The E-sports team of Diego Playz seems to be quite indifferent about the incident. Apparently, they find it rather funny.
Big Twitch streamers approve of the pro’s reaction – One offers him double the prize money
Instead of a punishment, Diego Playz receives a lot of support from the biggest Fortnite streamers on Twitch for his strike:
- Tyler “Ninja” Blevins thinks violence is not entirely okay, but he says: “The boy was somewhat asking for it,” as he endangered the integrity of the competition with his griefing.
- Turner “Tfue” Tenney saw it the same way.
The crypto-millionaire Trainwreck even goes further (via twitter). When he learned about the incident, he wrote to Diego Playz on Twitter:
Buddy, you stood up for yourself and your hard work. Screw that boy and screw anyone who tells you otherwise. Send me your Bitcoin address. Screw the $8000 prize money, I’ll send you $16,000.
Whether Diego Playz will accept Trainwreck’s offer and get the “double prize money” is still uncertain at the moment. But Trainwreck is known for taking such offers seriously.
Other Twitter users quickly latch onto Trainwreck’s post: They just happened to have unfairly lost a lot of money… whether there’s something to be done about it?
Trainwreck seems to be operating in financial dimensions different from most other people. He has apparently earned a million US dollars from risky cryptocurrency speculations. Even though he spends his free time gambling away the money in online casinos. There, he lets himself be filmed on Twitch:
Twitch streamer loses $8 million, yells at viewers who advise him against gambling
