Professional player Nicks responded, "You don't just throw an overpowered robot into the game hoping bad players will get good."
Fortnite has long struggled with the tension between competitive and casual play. The sequestering of the game's
siphon mechanic into only competitive modes was one example of this. Epic felt the mechanic, while vital for competitive play, made casual play too aggressive. Keeping the mech in competitive is, in some ways, the inverse of this situation, where an addition that makes casual play fun has supposedly disastrous consequences on competitive. Striking the balance will always be tough for
Fortnite, especially as the game beefs up its esports presence.
Then there's the question of spectacle and entertainment value, another point of tension in
Fortnite. Professional caster Balla
wrote, "One person losing a game by getting shot by B.R.U.T.E. missiles is too many. Dying to it is one of the least FUN things I can think of. Ever. In gaming. It is the opposite of 'fun' for ALL players. It is not a good spectacle. It is not entertaining watching people get mad."
Fortnite owes at least some of its success to its popularity with streamers, but Epic Games' emphasis on watchability sometimes comes at the cost of potential competitive strategies.
