Fortnite: Did Bugha collude in the FNCS?

A recent clip from Bugha’s stream showed Bugha being eliminated by another player, seemingly inciting a friend, Owl, to attempt to avenge him. Because these two players were in communication with one another in a solos match, fans of Fortnite are calling for Bugha and Owl to be banned from Fortnite.

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Was Bugha cheating in Fortnite?

don't know how bugha knew owl was next to him, either way kinda sus pic.twitter.com/5pWI4CtRO8

— SP (@7marSP) August 11, 2020

Although it's difficult to say definitively that Bugha was or wasn’t cheating in the Fortnite Champion Series, the evidence against him appears to be pretty damning. When viewing the clip, the question on everyone’s mind should be whether or not Bugha and Owl should have even been in a call together at all once they realized they were in the same game.

Collusion is a notoriously difficult thing to prove one way or the other, and Bugha is not even the first world class player to be accused of it during the Fortnite Champion Series. However, what sets the evidence against Benjy and Bugha apart is the fact that we have Bugha’s audio from the exact moment in a video clip.

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Cheating in the Fortnite Champion Series is an ongoing issue

Your anti cheat is godly @FNCompetitive pic.twitter.com/NcEwgsYKu6

— Tide Artemis (@artemisbtw) August 11, 2020

Of course, colluding isn’t the only potential concern for players worried about cheating in competitive Fortnite. Another player, Kona, recently streamed himself playing in the Fortnite Champion Series using a soft aimbot, or an aimbot that has parameters which can be altered to make it less obvious.

However, Kona has stated that his purpose wasn’t to get away with aimbotting, but just use it to see how far he could go with it. Indeed, if he hadn’t ultimately decided to stream it’s likely that Kona would have made it much farther before being ultimately removed from Fortnite.

Cheating amongst Fortnite pros

The top 1% have their inner circle & they know where they all drop & their loot paths.When the people who qualify are the same group who play scrims, they just share loot & don’t engage—not realistic. Regular ppl have to deal with off-spawn fights (deaths) which skews points.

— Nick Eh 30 (@NickEh30) August 2, 2020

The professional Fortnite community has long been accused of fostering a culture of insidership, frequently coordinating in ways that are not technically violations of the written rules but certainly do violate the spirit of competition.

Usually this comes in the form of splitting desirable loot locations, or agreeing to go to different locations before a game starts to reduce the likelihood of one of them being eliminated earlier. Every small agreement reduces the variability of the game, and increases each pros chances of performing well in the Fortnite Champion Series.

If someone competes who isn’t a member of this small club then it becomes much more difficult to do well as variance will only work against them. They can never hope for a game where Bugha is eliminated shortly after landing because multiple pros competed for a single location, for instance.

If Bugha and Owl are banned, it could be the first step in breaking up these unspoken rules and making Fortnite a more legitimate competitive game.