When Evan ‘Cented’ Barron joined FaZe clan in March 2021, fans worldwide had sky-scraping expectations from him. To be fair, he did gain a ton of followers across Twitch and Twitter and significantly improved his skills as a pro.

However, the former FNCS finalist and Cash Cups winner has been kicked out by FaZe Clan for using hate speech.

Why did FaZe Clan permanently remove Fortnite pro Cented?

While playing Fortnite recently, Cented joined Twitch streamer nothellfire1’s party and wasted no time in dropping a racial slur. It seems like he was not aware that nothellfire1 was live on Twitch.

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This was followed by FaZe immediately announcing Cented’s permanent removal from the clan for using hate speech. The post clearly mentioned how the Esports org is constantly evolving and there is no room for racial slurs/discriminatory language.

Soon after, Cented himself admitted to using the slur on stream and claimed that he should’ve known better. The streamer apologized to the Fortnite community and acknowledged his immaturity and ignorance.

He said, “Somewhere along the way I let my ego get the best of me.”

Fortnite community reacts to FaZe Clan removing Cented

While some players are shocked that FaZe has parted ways with Cented instead of giving him sensitivity training, others like prominent leaker HYPEX did not hold back from making him aware of his mistake.

The mixed response from the Fortnite community is understandable, to say the least. It is fair for people to expect organizations to take rehabilitative measures, and it is equally justified for others to expect more maturity from adults like Cented.

This isn’t the first time that Cented has faced consequences for his blunt behavior. Back in June 2021, Epic Games warned him for abusing a young player and recklessly ranting about the Battle Royale game on Twitter.

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Incidents like the one mentioned above have played a major role in decaying the image of Fortnite’s competitive community. Rather than being role models, the pros are infamous for being toxic and disrespectful.

Epic Games has finally announced the FNCS for Chapter 3 Season 3. This time around, the logo seems to have a tropical theme that matches the ‘Vibin’ season. The meta has also changed significantly, and it will be interesting to see how some of the most talented esports athletes have adapted to it.

Everything to know about Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) Chapter 3 Season 3

Fortnite Champion Series for Chapter 3 Season 3 will begin on July 6 with 3 Qualifier rounds. The top five teams (Duos) from each round will directly advance to the FNCS Finals.

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The qualifiers will take place till July 18 and the Semi-Finals will begin on July 21. As per Epic Games, the key to reaching the finals is Victory Royales and consistency. In the three Semi-Finals sessions, 6 Victory Royale winners and the top six consistent teams will move ahead.

The Finals will take place between August 12-14. There are two ways for a team to win the Fortnite Champion Series in Chapter 3 Season 3:

• The first team to get three Victory Royales and earn 475 points will be declared the FNCS champion. This is called the Match Point.
• If no team is able to acquire a Match Point at the end of 12 Finals matches, the duo with the highest points will win.

Chapter 3 Season 3 FNCS prize pool distribution

The prize pool for the Chapter 3 Season 3 FNCS is a whopping $3 million. However, it will be divided across several regions:

• EU: $1,350,000
• NAE: $690,000
• BR: $240,000
• NAW: $240,000
• ASIA: $240,000
• ME: $120,000
• OCE: $120,000

The prize pool is different for each region, primarily because of Fortnite’s prominence there. It is evident that the viewership numbers in Europe are much higher than in the Middle East and Oceania.

It is worth noting that fans should be able to unlock some free cosmetics by watching the matches. New FNCS-themed cosmetics also arrive in the Item Shop.

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All in all, it is safe to assume that the Fortnite Champion Series for Chapter 3 Season 3 will be more exciting than ever. A ton of new features and weapons have arrived recently, and even map changes have been quite frequent.

Multiplayer games, especially Battle Royales, have always had trouble with cheaters. Brilliant titles like Apex Legends and Call of Duty Warzone became unplayable owing to the rise of hackers and have lost innumerable players so far.

From the looks of it, there has been a surge of hackers in Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 3 as well following the introduction of Zero Build mode.

Fortnite pros are encountering more hackers than ever in Zero Build tournaments

Fortnite caught a second wind with Zero Build as a ton of new players joined the community. Moreover, big names like Ninja, Dr. Disrespect, and Tfue returned to the game and appreciated the non-sweaty mode.

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The developers then hosted Zero Build tournaments that received an overwhelmingly positive response initially. However, hackers have now plagued such tournaments.

SypherPK recently took part in the NA West Zero Build finals and he was well aware of the fact that some teams are abusing aim bot and wall hacks.

Soon after, the streamer reported that hackers eliminated him in the very first game. It is no surprise that this incident led to him quitting the cup. He asked Epic Games to work on a live bans feature or atleast a new anti-cheat system that is dedicated to competitive playlists.

Zero Build mode in Fortnite has helped in exposing cheaters

Previously, Fortnite compelled players to build which significantly increased the skill gap between newcomers and veterans. On one side, there were players with the skill set to make a skyscraper within 30 seconds. On the other end of the spectrum, there were beginners who struggled in every game because the SBMM system rarely matched them with equally skilled/experienced players.

Amidst such issues, we are witnessing the growing use of cheats and devices like the Cronus Zen. This allows cheaters to win more comfortably than ever, but naturally, at the cost of the ruined experience of every player they face.

Until Chapter 3 Season 1, it was harder to track cheaters because mechanics like building and editing were an integral part of the meta.

In contrast, aim and mobility are the deciding factors of a Zero Build game. Accordingly, players can now easily identify cheaters using aim bots and wall hacks.

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Countless other players, streamers, and pros have similar opinions on the current state of Fortnite and Epic Games would certainly want to come up with a solution before the Cash Cups commence in Chapter 3 Season 3.

In 2019, Epic Games dove headfirst into Fortnite’s competitive Esports scene. Following a $100 million prize pool for the year 2018, Epic put up another $100 million in 2019. This insane amount of prize money dwarfed other competitive games in comparison.

2019 was also the year of Fortnite’s first-ever World Cup. The Fortnite World Cup took place from July 26 – 28 in New York City and boasted $30 million in total prizes. One hundred of the best solo players from around the world, and 50 duo teams, competed for a massive amount of money.

Epic Games falls short of revenue goals

While the amount of money up for grabs seems quite impressive, it didn’t net Epic Games with the desired results. During the trial of Epic Games vs Apple, documents were shared that outlined the revenues that Fortnite generated from 2018 to 2019. Epic Games planned to make $4.59 billion during the 2018-2019 fiscal year but actually earned $4.2 billion instead.

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The documents stated that Epic Games had anticipated making $154 million more from Fortnite’s Esports scene than it was actually able to generate. While Epic Games is raking in billions of dollars a year, it’s unlikely that it will pour money into something that isn’t as profitable.

This major discrepancy in earnings could explain why there hasn’t been another Fortnite World Cup. After $100 million was awarded in 2019, 2020 saw a massive dip in prize money. The pool for the entire year was only $17 million.

Epic Games stated at the beginning of this year that it would be pledging $20 million in prize money for Fortnite’s 2021 competitive scene. This is $10 million less than the total prize pool for the Fortnite World Cup. Epic also stated that it had no plans for an in-person World Cup event this year.

The lack of prize money has been apparent over the past year as competitive Fortnite players have taken to social media to express their concerns. In 2019, the FNCS qualifier prize pool was $1 million a week for three months. Now, players are competing for a $3 million prize pool over the course of an entire season of FNCS.

• Read More: Epic Games announce 2021 Trios FNCS & cancel World Cup

The Fortnite World Cup may return in some capacity, but players shouldn’t expect a massive $30 million prize pool. The worldwide pandemic could be to blame for the lack of in-person tournaments, but that doesn’t mean it’s the sole reason there haven’t been any. Epic Games might be focusing on the more profitable aspects of Fortnite to endure the game’s longevity.

After a rather uneventful year for Fortnite’s competitive scene in 2020, it’s no surprise that the top 20 highest-earning players look very similar to those of 2019. With no 2020 World Cup or millions of dollars worth of prize money up for grabs, there wasn’t a lot that could have affected the current standings.

2020 did see a lot of former Fortnite enthusiasts seemingly leave Fortnite for the foreseeable future. Tyler “Ninja” Blevins was at one time the most popular Fortnite streamer but has since left the game for other competitive shooters.

Instead, the same top-ranking competitive players such as Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf and Kyle “Mongraal” Jackson have maintained their places on the 20 top highest-earning Fortnite players.

When looking at a player’s earnings this list will only gauge players on how much they have earned by playing Fortnite. While Bugha and other players have earned money through brand deals, merch sales, and partnerships, earnings are defined as what a player has won strictly by playing competitive Fortnite.

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It’s also important to note that, while over half of the top 20 have earned over $1 million, none of the players have earned more than $300,000 since September 23, 2019. Others have earned as little as $20,000 over the past year and a half.

This chart was last updated on April 26, 2021.

When comparing the list above to the highest-earning Fortnite players in 2019, the same 20 players are still on the list. Some players have moved up the ranks while others have maintained their position on the list. The biggest reason there haven’t been any new names added to the list is because of the lack of high-paying competitive events.

A large number of competitive Fortnite events were held in 2018 and 2019 including the Fall Skirmish Series, World Cup Finals, and Winter Royale. These events had multi-million dollar prize pools that rewarded first, second, and third-place winners with large cash prizes.

• READ MORE: Fortnite Season 6 FNCS: dates, prize pool, format & more

However, due to COVID-19’s impact on the world in 2020, Epic Games was unable to hold similar events. Competitive Fortnite took a back seat during the pandemic while crossover events and story-driven seasons kept players entertained.

With the pandemic still ensuing, Epic Games has stated it has no plans to conduct in-person tournaments throughout the course of 2021. FNCS tournaments are still taking place, but players won’t see the return of massive prize pools anytime soon.

The competitive Fortnite community has taken a few blows to their favorite game modes in the recent past. Epic banned pay-to-play scrimmages and wagers, even contacting Clix directly and threatening a ban for hosting the latter.

While a lot of players participated in wagers, even more were sad to see pro scrimmages get the axe. Most Fortnite streamers at the pro level would routinely broadcast their games; practicing and creating content at the same time.

For a few weeks, the professional Fortnite community seemed lost, with little way to officially practice for upcoming events.

On April 22, Epic released a blog post, announcing that they would be hosting the first-ever official Fortnite scrims for EU players. These would be divided into two groups: Open and Aura.

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Aura would be the traditional “pro scrims” that would require an initiation. Only the top 500 teams would be eligible to compete.

The Open scrims, as the name suggests, would be open to anyone in Arena Division 3 or higher. The top performers in Open Scrims will be invited to Aura at the end of each week, and poor performers or inactive teams from Aura will be relegated to Open League.

This all seems like an interesting system and one that Epic sorely needs. In fact, one could argue that this system is better than the base Arena system that is considered to be “competitive” Fortnite.

These scrims are only open to EU players at first, but we assume that Epic will bring NA scrims to the game next. Until then, we’ll have to see how the EU pros like these new official Fortnite scrims.

Fortnite Season 6 is here, and a new season means a new FNCS is coming. Epic recently announced the tournament, prize pool, format, and everything else we needed to know.

Ahead, we’ll cover all of the information we have about the Season 6 FNCS. Make sure to check back, as we’ll be updating this post as we learn more.

Fortnite Season 6 FNCS schedule

The Fortnite Season 6 FNCS will kick off on April 22 and 23, depending on your region. The three qualifying weeks will then take place every weekend after that. We’ll have one bye week before the Semi-Finals and Reboot Round – both taking place the same weekend.

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The finals will take place on May 29 and 30 for all regions except Middle East, which will happen on the 28-29. Here’s a quick breakdown of the full schedule (subject to change)

• Qualifier 1: Middle East – April 22-24. All other regions – April 23-25
• Qualifier 2: Middle East – April 29-May 1. All other regions – April 30-May 2
• Qualifier 3: Middle East – May 6-8. All other regions – May 7-9
• Bye Week: May 13-16
• Semi-Finals: Middle East – May 21. All other regions – May 22
• Reboot Round: Middle East – May 22. All other regions – May 23
• Finals: Middle East May 28-29. All other regions – May 29-30

FNCS Format & prize pool

The Season 6 FNCS is a trios tournament, which is the standard format for FNCS competitions.

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The top three teams from each qualifier will automatically move onto the Finals. The rest of the teams will earn Series points for each week, eventually culminating in the Semi-Finals and Reboot Round. The top-three teams in the Season 5 FNCS will automatically qualify for the Season 6 Finals.

Here’s a breakdown of the total prize pool for each region:

• Europe: $1,350,000
• NA-East: $690,000
• NA-West: $300,000
• Brazil: $300,000
• Asia: $150,000
• Middle East: $120,000
• Oceania: $90,000

Scoring

The scoring system got a few adjustments in Season 6. Most notably, Epic are rewarding teams who make it past the Storm Surge placement threshold, as this is a more difficult mark to hit.

Here’s how points will be rewarded in the Season 6 FNCS:

• Victory Royale: 30
• 2nd: 26
• 3rd: 24
• 4th: 22
• 5th: 21
• 6th: 20
• 7th: 19
• 8th: 18
• 9th: 17
• 10th: 16
• 11th: 14
• 12th: 13
• 13th: 12
• 14th: 11
• 15th: 10
• 16th: 9
• 17th: 8
• 18th-24th: 5
• Each Elimination: 2 Points

Twitch Drops

We don’t have any official news of Twitch drops for the Season 6 FNCS just yet, but we expect to see them when the event begins. In past seasons, Fortnite pros, streamers, and the official broadcast allowed players to earn in-game cosmetics by watching their perspective.

We’ll update you if any more news or changes come to the Season 6 FNCS. Until then, make sure to follow us on Twitter @FortniteINTEL so you don’t miss any of the latest Fortnite news.

Image Credit: Epic Games

The Fortnite Season 6 FNCS is right around the corner, and Epic have begun to outline what competitive players can expect.

Now, they’ve released a blog post that outlines some of the biggest issues in the space.

Intentional Disconnects

Intentionally disconnecting from a match has been an issue in competitive Fortnite for a while. Ever since the shakedown mechanic has been in the game, players have intentionally left to prevent opponents from gaining intel on their teammates.

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“Intentionally disconnecting from a match in an attempt to gain an unfair advantage goes against the spirit of Fortnite competition,” the competitive team wrote in a blog post. “Accordingly, all players must be sure not to disconnect from the game while in a knocked down, ‘Down-But-Not-Out’ (DBNO) state.”

Key Remapping & Wagers

Epic also clarified their stance on key remapping, saying that it is entirely allowed to remap keys in Fortnite. This appears to include the use of ReWASD and similar third-party software, as they specifically mention that double-movement binds are allowed on keyboard and mouse. They only said that inputs like macros are bannable.

On the topic of wagering, Epic said that they don’t allow any wagering within their games. “Betting, wagering, or gambling on any Fortnite match or game may result in one or more of the disciplinary actions discussed above – including, but not limited to, official warnings or an account ban.”

The article also covered some longtime rules like competitive warnings, region locking, and restarting your tournament after you’ve begun. Nothing has changed on this front, but they still went into detail in their explanation.

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Whether or not you agree with some of these rules, it’s good to see that Epic are clarifying their stance on wagering, key remapping, and more. Now, players will have no excuse for breaking the rules, as they’re outlined in black and white.

Qualifiers for the Fortnite Season 6 FNCS are set to begin this weekend. Good luck to everyone competing!

Fortnite is no stranger to game-breaking glitches and exploits. Most of the time, it takes a fair bit of effort to pull off the exploits. This isn’t the case in a glitch that went viral over the weekend.

Players recently stumbled upon a duplication glitch that was troublingly easy to perform – so easy, in fact, that multiple players discovered it by mistake.

To complete the glitch, all you need to do is have a full inventory. After that, you just have to throw a consumable item while picking up another item from the ground. This will duplicate the item you throw, and you can do it as many times as you want.

We’re not sure when this glitch first made it into Fortnite, but the first round of players who discover such an exploit usually don’t talk about it. It’s safe to say that this has been possible for at least a week in Fortnite Season 6.

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DreamHack, who were hosting an open tournament this weekend, decided to reschedule; citing, “tournament integrity concerns.” As this was an open, remote tournament, it would be impossible to make sure no players ever abused this glitch.

At the end of the day, it’s better that everyone knows about a glitch like this rather than only a handful. Epic will undoubtedly do something about it in the next patch. If it didn’t go viral, they may never have found out.

Zayt will be a familiar name to anyone who has been in the Fortnite scene since the beginning. The NRG Fortnite pro has always been a staple of the pro community. During his time in the game, he’s always been one of the best players in the world.

In fact, Zayt has earned over 1.2 million dollars playing Fortnite over the last three years, with 12 tournament wins under his belt.

On April 17, 2021, Zayt announced his retirement on his stream during a Q&A. He later took to Twitter, saying that he will host viewing parties for competitive Fortnite events. The rest of the time, he’ll “go live and do an unranked to radiant on Valorant.”

If the news of Zayt retiring from Fortnite sounds familiar, that’s because he announced his retirement about three months ago before returning to the game three weeks later.

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NRG, Zayts organization for the bulk of his pro Fortnite career, poked fun at this fact with a meme. They posted the same “Thank you, Zayt” graphic with the GTA San Andreas, “Oh sh*t, here we go again.”

It will be interesting to see exactly what Zayt does next. The pro scrimmages he once organized and ran were banned by Epic Games, but he clearly intends to stay in the Fortnite scene to some degree.

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Zayt, at 21, is somewhat of an elder statesman in Fortnite – a game that has a professional community dominated by kids in their mid-teens. He could have a bright future ahead of him in Valorant, where he would be on the younger side of the pro scene; should he decide to go pro.