Epic Games has reinstated a popular Fortnite map creator a few after they made homophobic comments regarding the Rainbow Royale LGBTQIA+ event.
ResetEra user rpm put together a detailed report regarding what happened involving map creator AwA and their brief banning on Fortnite. AwA is one of the most popular Fortnite map creators and is specifically the creator of Pro 100, a map that is frequently featured on Fortnite's creative hub and even made its way to Epic's own summer event.
When Epic Games revealed the Rainbow Royale event on its Twitter page, AwA commented, "Oh, no". When called out on it, they said, "I'm not a fanatic, but this is against nature". AwA's liked Tweets included homophobic slurs and memes, as pointed out by bnwkr on Twitter. In response, Epic Games disabled the Pro 100 map and AwA's Support A Creator code, something that gives creators a five percent cut of items bought from the item shop.
After this, AwA said, "Hi everyone, I know I made a mistake in the last tweets, I never expected them to hurt me, I'm really sorry for giving my opinion", before deleting and posting a second apology that continued to call the previous tweets "opinions". They said, "The reason behind it was because it is against my religion and I was grown up that way. I will try better in the future and try to continue to strive as a creator. I have much to learn and correct. I hope you guys give me a second chance as everyone should have."
Awa's second apology was seemingly enough for Epic Games, as it reinstated the Pro 100 map a few hours after banning it. As pointed out on the ResetEra thread, Support A Creator codes have previously been disabled, but this is the first time that one has ever been reinstated after the fact. Since having the Pro 100 map reinstated, AwA Tweeted, "Thank you all, now my maps are back, play and enjoy now".