Fortnite: Epic Games Addresses Scoring Issue in FNCS

Fortnite Champion Series participants have recently fallen victim to a glitch in Fortnite's tournament matchmaking system.

This bug occurs when all four players from a qualified FNCS squad do not properly load into the pre-game lobby. Professional players Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, Benjy "Benjyfishy" Fish and Shane "EpikWhale" Cotton and their respective squads experienced this issue, which caused a variety of outcomes. In the case of both Fish and Cotton, their individual Fortnite Champion Series squad members queued into matches with an incomplete team. Unfortunately for both squads and many others, this resulted in the game and the points earned within not counting. The lack of these rightfully earned points meant teams would lose out on prize money and could potentially not qualify for the next round in the competition.

Epic Games Provides a Solution

After the situation directly affected Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, it appears that the collective community effort has resulted in a win. The Fortnite Competitive Twitter account sent out a tweet stating that they will make necessary adjustments in order to rectify these issues. It is a refreshing resolution after Epic Games failed even to acknowledge the problem in the first place.

In the case, Ninja and his squad experienced a different result regarding the glitched lobbies. Alongside Malachi "Reverse2k" Greiner, Nate "NateHill" Hill and Trevor "Funk" Siegler, the foursome was on the brink of qualifying for the Fortnite Champion Series Semifinals when Funk failed to make it into their final match. Funk's absence forced Ninja, NateHill and Reverse2k to rework their strategy. Week Three of the Fortnite Champion Series Chapter 2 Season 1 ended with Ninja and his teammates outside of the top ten, which meant they would not qualify through placement. Although Epic Games' points adjustment did not change anything for Ninja's squad, it is at least reassuring.

Edgey Reacts to the Resolution

Benjamin "Edgey" Peterson of NRG Esports took to Twitter with the corrected score from Week Two of the Fortnite Champion Series. Fortnite's in-game leaderboard system now reflects the proper amount of games played as well. Epic Games has adjusted scores across all regions, which means the likes of Europe, Middle East, Asia, Oceania, NA West, NA East and Brazil should all have received corrections in some manner.

Unpromising History

It's an actual indictment on the in-game tournament system that should not have existed in the first place.

These Fortnite professional team's future is dependent on qualifying for at least heats in early December. For Ninja's squad, they have not yet qualified for the NA East FNCS Heats. With no restart possible in an online setting, teams must play out their matches without a full team. Having only three players against a full squad is a massive uphill battle in competitive Fortnite. All four players in Ninja's squad essentially conceded their final match with no possible solution in sight. One could argue that this was a mistake on their part, but Epic Games does not exactly have a positive history of correcting errors in their competitive atmosphere.

On top of the score corrections, Epic Games has released a statement in regards to the "Abandon Match" issue that continues to affect the Fortnite Champion Series.

"There has been a recurring issue that causes a member of a squad to disconnect while loading into a match. When this happens, an error message will be displayed to your squad, giving you the option to continue the match or abandon it so that it does not count. Upon clicking 'continue match,' teams can then play out the match but their points were not recorded nor added to the leaderboard," Epic explained.

Teams will now have the option to continue the match with an incomplete team with the ability to still earn points. This response from Epic Games paints a clearer picture of what should have been all along. Regardless of missing players, squads should always be able to compete in a given match and earn points in the process. Epic Games is actively working on improving the competitive landscape of Fortnite's flawed online system.

Fortnite's statement addresses teams that will lose their position due to the point changes.

"We are beginning the process of manually correcting all point issues that occurred during the FNCS Weekly Finals (Round 3) of each region due to this issue. As a result of our error, we will retroactively award updated prizes to the corrected top teams, but also will not remove prizing from any team who qualified under the incorrect results. Repairing the scores may impact which teams advance to the FNCS Season Finals, and teams previously in a qualification position may fall out of their previously held placement. Please refer to the updated leaderboards once they are posted to determine which teams have qualified for the FNCS Season Finals."

Unfortunately, this means teams that qualified recently with a top-ten result will lose out on their spot. The consistency points will prove to be essential as we approach week four of the Fortnite Champion Series.

Epic Games most certainly dug themselves into a hole by waiting so long to address these issues. Many FNCS competitors will lose out on their top ten or top five finish. These borderline teams have been operating under the impression that their position in the semifinals was safe. Safety is no longer the case for these squads, which adds more pressure to perform well in the final week of qualifiers. We will ultimately have to wait for the results of these point adjustments, but it's safe to say that many teams are playing for their FNCS future in week four.

The full statement on the abandon match issue can be read here.