A pair of Fortnite
World Cup competitors, formerly banned by Epic for cheating, were the target of much ire Saturday, as the crowd loudly booed one’s appearance onscreen and subsequently cheered for their loss.
XXiF was competing in Saturday’s Fortnite World Cup duos tournament alongside his partner Ronaldo. During the tournament’s fourth match, XXiF was shown on the stadium’s giant screen for the first time. The crowd gradually booed XXiF louder and louder, until 100 Thieves clan player Elevate quickly eliminated him.
Video footage captured by multiple individuals on social media shows the crowd’s ecstatic reaction to XXiF’s elimination.
XXif Dies on Main Feed to Elevate and Crowd Goes Wild!!! I love this crowd pic.twitter.com/CS5FPpOwFs
— Nathan (@NeonistCG) July 27, 2019
The official 100 Thieves Twitter account even took some time to poke fun at XXiF’s demise.
.@ElevateFN plays for the people. #100T pic.twitter.com/MOyXYr0l3t
— 100 Thieves Live (@100ThievesLive) July 27, 2019
Epic Games previously banned XXiF and Ronaldo from Fortnite for 14 days, after an internal review found that the players had colluded with other players in order to acquire easy elimination points during week 3 of the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers, according to Dexerto. The pair were subsequently dropped from their team, Rise Nation. That initially sounded like the end of the whole matter, but then XXiF and Ronaldo qualified during the week 8 qualifier, finishing in third place and securing a spot during the finals.
XXiF and Ronaldo ended up placing 28th during the duos finals, securing them $50,000 each in prize money. The Fortnite community was initially angry with the decision to let XXiF and Ronaldo back in, and some at the World Cup finals could be seen visibly protesting XXiF’s participation, such as this man in the picture below wearing a “Lock XXiF Up” shirt from Reddit.
Credit: Reddit user u/mrax1
In a TwitLonger post, Ronaldo addressed the crowd’s reaction to his and XXiF’s loss.
“Damn today was rough,” Ronaldo wrote. “Quick message to my supporters, all of you guys know who you are. I know the crowd and a lot of people still aren’t with us. But I really appreicate (sic) everyone that has been with me since the beginning. Things will only get brighter and I will continue to improve. Thank you so much to all you real ones. Another shoutout to my team RiotSquad for supporting xxif and I even through all the horrible things people are saying about us.”
Epic has not addressed the community’s reaction in any public way beyond the initial ban.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and the only thing he’s looking to feed is his mouth.
