Champion Series, Twitch Blunders and the Dreaded Mech
It has only been a few weeks since we saw a bunch of brand-new esports players enter the millionaire ranks in gaming from the Fortnite World Cup, the Champion Series is about to get underway.
The Champion Series: Weekly will feature three rounds each week, running from 17 August until 15 September. From there, the Champion Series: Season Finals will head through Heats 1 to 4, with group stages from all regions being played for in the first two heats, and the 2nd set of two heats consisting of only EU, NAE, NAW and BR.
The Champion Series Grand Finals for all regions will take place on 22 September. After each week’s rounds, teams or players will earn series points that will determine where people place. Players can only compete in Solo or Trio, and there will be a $10 million prize pool up for grabs across all regions and modes.
With the start of the 10th Season in Fortnite, players have been posting to social media about the latest update, which includes an artillery-firing mech by the name of B.R.U.T.E. This mech has changed a lot of the gameplay that the 100-player battle royale fanbase wouldn’t necessarily expect, and while it doesn’t look out of place at all, it has definitely sparked outrage across the community. Epic Games will certainly need to look into it before commencing with the Blackheart Cup, or indeed any other competitions that are soon to come.
One such player, Richard ‘Ninja’ Blevins is also one of the people who hasn’t particularly enjoyed the involvement of the new mech in the game. Blevins, known across the world for his Fortnite fame, has since moved his streaming exclusively to Twitch competitor, Mixer. Microsoft’s new streaming service must have paid a pretty tidy some to the player in order to secure his exclusive streaming rights, but no details about the deal have been shared. Nevertheless, Blevins has brought with him, a massive fan base of players and gaming enthusiasts to the new platform, leaving Twitch a little shorthanded in the Fortnite department.
Twitch was quick to make use of the channel that was formerly in control of Blevins, and took advantage of his viewer potential. His dormant page was then used by Twitch to promote other streamers across the network who were also playing Fortnite. A great idea in theory, as some users were then exposed to other Fortnite players looking to gain notoriety.
It’s no surprise though that this soon turned disasters, as one of the channels that was clearly violating the Twitch terms of service shot to the top, showing pornography. The moderators weren’t able to catch it immediately, so unfortunately, it seemed like quite a few people were exposed to it before anyone was able to catch on.
Blevins, in a heartfelt message to his community, apologised to his old viewers on Twitch and was working to get it taken down.
“As you guys know I’m streaming on Mixer now. There was a porn account which was number one being recommended on my channel. And I have no say in any of this stuff. So for anyone who saw that, for anyone whose kids saw that, I apologise, and I’m sorry.”
