Fortnite: Ninja says Fortnite needs to address griefing to “be respected”

Ninja has notably reduced his overall time spent on Fortnite in his usual game rotation, picking up games like Valorant and Among Us instead. Recently, the streamer has decided to share his thoughts on competitive Fortnite, and what changes Fortnite needs to do in order for competitive Fortnite to be respected.

Competitive Fortnite and what Ninja claims qualifies as griefing

During the short voice clip, Ninja talked briefly about what he experienced and witnessed in competitive Fortnite and specifically called out specific types of griefing as worthy of attention. In particular, Ninja suggested that Fortnite needs a closed league of “dedicated and respected teams who know how to play at a high level” in order to have a strong, successful, and legitimate competitive environment.

He highlighted certain actions as “griefing” which include:

1. Landing on eachother
2. Push “random, dumb” kills
3. Stream sniping
4. “W” key (referring to aggressing into a bad situation)

While these specific acts can result in an overall negative environment for competitive Fortnite, it also speaks somewhat to the sense of entitlement garnered by professional Fortnite players.

Griefing, or just upset?

While Ninja certainly raises a number of good points, he definitely neglects to address certain aspects of competitive Fortnite integral to the game. He also seems to suggest that playing sub-optimally is the same as griefing, which that is not likely to be the case.

His first raised point, suggesting that landing on top of each other in Fortnite is griefing, is something of a contentious issue in Fortnite, where competitive players seemingly divide POIs and refuse to engage each other at the start, both out of a sense of self preservation and professional agreement.

But contesting early locations isn’t something that happens when someone feels like griefing, it’s a part of the game. Fortnite doesn’t start at the first circle, it starts as soon as you jump out of the bus. If you don’t want to play until the last five minutes, and you consider anyone who does play before that a griefer, then perhaps Fortnite isn’t for you.

Many of Ninja’s other points, such as aggressively pushing for a kill even if it might mean weakening yourself, or “W-keying” into another player’s build, lean into the same mind set of professional entitlement. He, and many other competitive players, are upset that a non-professional player dared to enter into a competitive environment and doesn’t play with the same agreed-upon strategies as everyone else.

Of the things Ninja deemed worthy of calling out by name, stream sniping is the only thing which could be considered unequivocally griefing, however this is something that can be prevented entirely by the streamer implementing a delay, or turning off their stream. Of course, streamers may not want to do that, which is understandable, but there is little that can be done otherwise.

Competitive Fortnite shouldn’t be exclusive

Ninja obviously raises some good points about griefing and how it impacts competitive Fortnite, but his solutions and his suggestions for what qualifies as griefing betrays his sense of entitlement.

Competitive Fortnite players aren’t owed exclusive looting rights to a location just because they landed their first, and someone else making a sub-optimal decision that harms you doesn’t mean that they don’t belong in a competitive event.

Establishing exclusive servers where competitive players could play only with each other would only widen the gap in values between pros and casual players, and actually serve to delegitimize Fortnite, as the average player relates less and less to it.

At a certain point, it will almost seem like the competitive and casual communities are playing two different games.