Fortnite pro wavyjacob banned for allegedly using "N-word" during FNCS tournament

Professional Fortnite player Jacob "wavyjacob" Ghaith received a ban in the middle of an FNCS tournament.

The ban itself was shown by wavyjacob on his Twitter. It listed out a length of over 181 days with the reason being "Exploiting." That doesn't add up to what the ban could have really stemmed from.

Just got banned mid tourney? pic.twitter.com/zIWn1OWcHl

— wavyjacob (@wavyjacob1) June 25, 2021

The belief is that the ban came from the name being used in-game, which some say had a "leet" version of the N-word or could have been a hacker with a string of random numbers and letters.

For those unaware, "leet" is the term used for gamertags, in-game nicknames, or simply just words spelled with some numbers replacing letters.

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wavyjacob banned for in-game name during Fortnite tournament

yea ik, but they coulda put user-3978939 bs or reduce the ban like cmon 181 days bc of the name but you got people who cheat and get banned for 2 months lmao

— wavyjacob (@wavyjacob1) June 25, 2021

Replies to his tweet quickly came in, pointing out that it could have been due to his name while participating in the Fortnite tournament. His in-game name was "r23ln1664W4v7."

If you look at that in leet form, it is easy to see the aforementioned word in the middle of the IGN. This was spotted by a handful of users and is assumed to be the reason for the ban almost immediately.

bro you think people cant see that you put the n-word in numbers in your name pic.twitter.com/nzngUTR9op

— Zocs (@ERoeges) June 25, 2021

It seems as though the ban reasoning may be incorrect if Epic Games did it rapidly enough to just get the in-game name off of the tournament broadcast. Regardless of the reason, wavyjacob hoped to get #freewavy trending.

#freewavy

— wavyjacob (@wavyjacob1) June 25, 2021

A handful of pro players joined in, such as FaZe Sway and TSM FTX Commandment with tweets of #freewavy. While it is picking up steam, his ban appears to have been shortened in Fortnite for other reasons.

A Reddit thread has individuals commenting with different ban lengths. Some say it was changed to 24 hours while other users are adamant that the Fortnite ban is now at 2 weeks and will update once the first 24 hours have passed.

Obviously, wavyjacob is in violation of Fortnite rules, whether in-game or for the broadcast of the tournament. The exact details of the ban will, of course, come from word of mouth rather than Epic Games themselves.