Professional player and Twitch streamer Jake “Poach” Brumleve (21) has announced his retirement from Fortnite: Battle Royale. He is focusing on the new shooter from Riot, Valorant. In his departure, Poach criticizes the developer Epic Games for what they have done to Fortnite. He has not enjoyed the game for a long time.
Who is Poach? The now 21-year-old Jake “Poach” Brumleve was among the young US professionals in 2018 who made a name for themselves with their e-sports skills in Fortnite. That was before Epic loosened the age restrictions: since then, even younger players have dominated the scene. At the Fortnite World Cup, a 13-year-old became a star.
As a member of “Team Liquid”, Poach was involved in the e-sports scene of Fortnite early on and managed to shine in some tournaments during the early days: He secured quite a bit of prize money from the first major tournament series. He is now a veteran.
He celebrated his greatest success in September 2018, when he won $135,000 by taking 3rd place in the Summer Skirmish at Pax West. Overall, he has earned $323,900 with Fortnite (via esportearnings: that’s €295,980.
Poach has criticized Fortnite and Epic Games for years
This is how Poach previously criticized Fortnite: Poach has repeatedly expressed criticism of Fortnite and its development:
- Poach was furious that Epic Games dictated to the professional players what resolution they had to play with
- He criticized Epic for making drastic changes to Fortnite, even before important tournaments
- Vehicles like the hamster ball annoyed him greatly
- In April 2019, Poach even said: None of the pros play Fortnite for fun, it’s all about the money
Fortnite was never his goal
This is what he says now: In a statement on Twitter, Poach says he is ending his career in Fortnite. The game simply no longer makes him happy. Fortnite hasn’t been fun for him for a long time. He has wanted to play other games for a while but felt stuck in a Fortnite box. Epic also makes many mistakes in e-sports; they talk too little with the pros.
Poach says he is grateful to Fortnite and Epic for giving him the opportunity to pursue his dream job as a competitor and streamer, but Fortnite was never his goal. He was at the right place at the right time, but he wants to play something where he can be truly “competitive”, and Fortnite was never the right fit.
He is now focusing on Valorant as an e-sports professional and Twitch streamer.
The new shooter Valorant from Riot Games is designed as an e-sports title, and at the moment, many e-sports players and Twitch streamers are raving about the game.
