Over 200 Fortnite World Cup prize winners caught cheating
Over 1,200 total cheaters caught in first week of competition, most for circumventing region locks
206 competitors who won monetary prizes during the first week of qualifiers for the Fortnite World Cup have had their prizes forfeited after being caught cheating during the competition.
A total of 1,221 players were caught cheating during the first week of qualifiers, according to a blog post from Epic Games. The majority of these (1163 accounts, including 196 prize winners) were banned from competitive play for 14 days for circumventing region locks and playing in multiple regions to increase their chances of winning.
48 accounts, nine of which won prizes, were caught account sharing and also banned for 14 days. Eight (including one winner) were banned for "teaming" (partnering with others in a solo queue match). Another was banned from competition for 72 hours for deliberately disconnecting so that another player would not receive points.
Finally, one competitive player was permanently banned and removed from his professional team after it was revealed he used cheat software to see other players' locations.
All players that received winnings and were caught cheating have had those winnings forfeit.
Epic says it has recently amped up its detection systems to catch players teaming, and is also working on improving its detection for deliberate disconnects.
Total, the Fortnite World Cup will award $30 million in prizes. The finals take place from July 26-28.