Fortnite streamer NickEh30 drew some negative attention when intentionally partaking in an exploitative strategy during Twitch's Streamer Bowl Charity Tournament.
The event was organized to raise money for various foundations, consisting of special rules that pitted 16 duos against each other. NickEh30 is particularly known for his consistent positive attitude and clean content, so his controversial strategy shocked and offended many viewers.
Caught on the tournament's main broadcast, Nick was overheard discussing his plans to intentionally violate rules by landing outside of the allowed zone, knowing that it would only result in an inconsequential warning (Backup clip here).
The situation was particularly unfortunate because Nick's team came back into the zone behind another team, eliminating them. The team they killed also happened to be to winners of the previous match which had brought them to 2nd place; When Nick's exploitative strategy took them down, their chances of winning significantly plummeted.
There has been a wave of well-known figures attempting to exploit lazy tournament formats and loopholes, adopting less-than-honest strategies in order to gain an advantage. Although Nick could make the case that he was simply utilizing the format to his advantage (knowing he would only receive a warning) as fair-play, the fact that it was less-than-classy still remains.
Luckily, there was some justice in the end when the victimized squad, Chap and Kyle Van Noy, placed 5th overall in the tournament – one place ahead of Nick and David Morgan.
Another example of this type of situation is a recent controversy from the Apex Legends Global Series North American qualifier – an online tournament that determined who would go on to compete on the big stage in Texas this March.
Essentially, one team accused another of cheating by strategically eliminating certain players in order to stop them from advancing, joking about it with another team in the middle of the tournament. Was it actually cheating? Not technically, but it wasn't a classy move by any means.
Situations like these are complicated. Yes, one could argue that the aforementioned strategies are perfectly fair – the guilt lying on the tournament designers. Nevertheless, underhanded tactics will certainly come back to bite these teams, undoubtedly resulting in a loss of respect from certain fans and colleagues alike.