Popular Twitch streamer Felix ‘xQc‘ Lengyel wasn’t impressed after he decided to tune into some of the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers, watching FaZe Clan pro Turner ‘Tfue‘ Tenney, calling the viewing experience “unbearable”.
The Fortnite World Cup is handing out a total of $40 million in prizing across the qualifiers and finals, with the winner of solo tournament netting a ridiculous $3 million.
Fortnite is obviously incredibly popular in terms of players, but also in terms of viewing figures, consistently sitting among the top five games on Twitch – but xQc can’t understand why anyone would want to watch the game played competitively.
Competitive Fortnite doesn’t entertain xQc
His main complaint stems from the technique players use to ensure the highest placing possible in each match. This is of course crucial when it comes to qualifying, but it results in players simply trying to survive for as long as possible, rather than play aggressively.
Whereas in a normal match, there might be 10 or less players left in the final circle, xQc estimates that while he was watching Tfue, 30 or 40 players would still be alive in the very final circle on the map.
At this point, each player would then hunker down in a build, and once they established some high ground, they simply edit a wall so that they can see through it, and continue to play it safe.
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“They’re not even playing the game!” xQc exclaimed, “it’s like an architect game, seriously. Shit is unbearable.”
It would seem that not everyone agrees though, as top streamers like Tfue and Tyler ‘Ninja‘ Blevins were pulling in hundreds of thousands of viewers during when playing their qualifying matches, so clearly people still want to watch.
xQc himself comes from a competitive background, formerly a professional Overwatch player, and admittedly, similar criticisms have been made of Overwatch’s merit as a spectator experience, although for different reasons than Fortnite’s ‘stalemate’ like action, particularly in the late game.
