Fortnite: Pro Player Calc Believes NA East Is Better Than Europe
| Tags: Fortnite
| Author Matt Pryor
A top NA East player had some harsh words for European Fortnite.
The discussion of NA East versus Europe is an age-old tale in the competitive Fortnite scene. Members within the community are continually debating who the best teams and players are in both. Considering the size of NA East and Europe, there's no denying the built-in conflict. The Fortnite World Cup gave onlookers a taste of who are the best players in the world. Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf represented NA East at the event and took first place despite Europe's best vying for the same achievement. Benjyfishy, MrSavage, Mongraal, Mitr0 and countless others fell short of the North American phenom. However, Europe claimed a World Cup Championship of their on the day before – when Aqua and Nyhrox took first place in duos.
Two major LAN events followed before the COVID-19 pandemic shook the world. European player Merijn won DreamHack Winter in Sweden with a handful of North American pros in attendance. 100 Thieves competitor MrSavage followed a few months later with a win at DreamHack Anaheim. By my count, Europe is up 3-1 in recent offline Fortnite competitions – which serve as the most reliable measure of the world's best players. Unfortunately, due to COVID-19, the Fortnite scene has not experienced another LAN since MrSavage's win in late-February. Nevertheless, Europe versus NA East arguments rage on into the latest season of Fortnite.
Professional player for Built By Gamers – Jonathan “Calculator” Weber – stirred the pot after joining the FNTASIA podcast, hosted by Fortnite commentators Ballatw and ShyoWager. He had some choice words for the European scene.
Contents
Calc Lays into European Fortnite
Ok so apparently we leaked Episode 4's guest early.
Did some shuffling, some substitution, some changes, some trades, some reorganization, some input output, and our NEW guest for this week is @yungcalc !
LIVE NOW LETS GOOO! https://t.co/xulxtJ9cAC pic.twitter.com/mIp1kSLSLg
— FNTASIA Podcast (@FNTASIAPodcast) October 15, 2020
Calc is no stranger to controversy in the competitive Fortnite scene, so it's not surprising to see him making some statements as such. During a discussion about friends not fighting each other in tournaments, when Calc brought up European players, Crr and benjyfishy griefing his trio in a Daily Cup for no reason. ShyoWager followed up, asking if Calc had more to say about Europe.
“Dude, EU sucks, I'm not even going to lie,” Calc responded. “People don't understand, but when NA players watch EU end games, they cringe, because they do not understand basic stuff in end game.”
The Built By Gamers player grappled with the best method of explaining his reasoning to the viewers. “Their meta in EU is shockwaving up and harpooning somebody for heigh,” said Calc. “If the team on height is not a literal drone, you're dead, you're instantly dead.”
Calc pulled no punches in his verbal dressing down of arguably Fortnite's most talented region top to bottom. ShyoWager took a more reasonable approach, suggesting that Europe and NA East's meta development are relatively similar, despite Calc's claims to the contrary.
“Shyo, they don't understand what's their end game, they don't care. They don't care what pieces are theirs in end game,” rebutted Calc while referencing EU professional player BL Anas' highlights video. “They learned about dead side rotates through YourFellowArab's ‘Inside the Mind of an IGL.'” Balla stated that players like benjyfishy could get away with not knowing dead-side rotates before Calc erupted, saying “cause his region sucks!”
The discussion continued, with Calc defending his stance while Balla and Shyo went to bat for Europe. “If you, Zex and Mack have this idea, why aren't you in EU winning their prize pool?” asked Balla. Calc responded, stating, “We want to. There's a lot more to that than you think. You act like NA pros don't want to move to EU.” Calc said it doesn't make sense right now, but depending on the prize pool, he probably will at some point.
Europe better at Solos, but they don't carry Doom's Gauntlets
With Calc lending a bit of credit to Europe for their accomplishments in solos, the lengthy conversation continued. “They're good at fighting. They're probably better at solos than NA is, but they're just behind on a lot of the ideas that makes Fortnite super competitive.” As previously mentioned, European players won the two last major offline solo events, so there's undoubtedly some merit to Calc's statements.
Season X Trio Champions 😀 $300,000
Love @TSM_ZexRow @yungcalc pic.twitter.com/sCVCOxPEub— MackWood (@MackWood1x) September 22, 2019
The Season X Champion conceded that Europe might be better at solos, but their decision-making in trios makes no sense. He pointed explicitly that top trios in EU refuse to carry Doctor Doom's Arcane Gauntlets in their inventories. “I don't know why you're not picking up gauntlets if you land there. It's really dumb not to,” spoke Calc. “Keeping them on rotates and applying pressure and letting people know Dooms is on height is really important.” Notable teammates benjyfishy, MrSavage and LeTsHe land at Doom's Domain and carry only the Mystical Bomb.
Who's Better? NA East or Europe?
Calc's statements will surely resurface the discussion of whether Europe or NA East is the better region. Unfortunately, there is no way to answer that question consistently. As previously mentioned, COVID-19 ruined any opportunity for these two regions to clash in an offline environment. The Fortnite World Cup exists as the only legitimate competition between the two collections of players. Epic Games announced earlier this year that the pandemic forced their hand to cancel any plans of a 2021 World Cup event.
Hopefully, the future will provide many more opportunities for all of these regions to combine into one intense showdown. Until then, cross-regional DreamHack tournaments and Cash Cups are the only ways to determine which is superior.