Fortnite: Tempers Flare Between Pro Players Clix and Unknown in the FNCS Invitational

Two of NA East’s best lock horns in the middle of the $2 million FNCS Invitational.

Fortnite’s final major tournament of Chapter 2 Season 2 concludes this weekend with the Grand Finals of the FNCS Invitational. After three grueling weeks of competition, the top 100 players in all seven regions are jockeying for a high position on the leaderboard. From a pure drama standpoint, the NA East region is grabbing all of the headlines. Controller versus keyboard players is just one of the many storylines that are commanding attention.

Perhaps the most notable, however, is the developing rivalry between professional players Cody “Clix” Conrad and Dominick “Unknown” Green. The two are at each other’s throats after an encounter in match five of the FNCS Invitational Grand Finals.

Clix Snipes and Emotes on Unknown

controller player down. pic.twitter.com/v3w83YQULP

— Clix (@Clix) May 23, 2020

The penultimate match on day one of the FNCS Invitational caused quite a stir amongst the two multiple-time Fortnite champions. Late in the game, Unknown was looking to w-key other players to boost his score as day one came to a close. At one point before encountering Clix, Unknown stated on stream, “I feel like I am going to get sniped.”

Against the advice of his in-game coach, Unknown decided to push a player in Lazy Lake. He threw caution to the wind and began pursuing the enemy player recklessly. In an instant, Clix popped out of seemingly nowhere and eliminated Unknown with a precise headshot snipe. Clix proceeded to emote on Unknown, which enraged him instantly. After the unfortunate circumstance, Unknown proclaimed that he would land on Clix in match six of the tournament.

Match Six encounter

chillin in this bush with a grey pistol, his controller can't lock on to me so im vibing

— Clix (@Clix) May 23, 2020

As he said the game before, Unknown made it his mission to grief Clix in the final match of day one. He landed at the Pleasant Park location with full intentions to throw his own game. Clix caught wind of Unknown’s plans and avoided him at all costs. Unknown proceeded to pursue the wrong player to Sweaty Sands. He w-keyed pro player Ajerrs in a losing effort.

Unknown then doubled down on his intentions for the final day of competition. “It wasn’t even Clix,” said Unknown on stream, “So I just did all that work for no reason. I’ll just land on him tomorrow.” Shortly before ending his stream, Unknown read Clix’s tweets regarding the situation aloud.

“Clix said if Unknown lands on me and griefs me on purpose, he’s banned from all events. That’s not how it works.” he continued, “I’m going to be looking at his rotation pattern, and tomorrow I am going to land Slurpy. Then one random game I’m just going to land on him.”

Clix Fires up his stream in a rage

After Unknown ended his stream, Clix went live and began a long rant about the situation. You can catch his entire rant on his Twitch stream archive. Sparing the barrage of expletives, Clix was genuinely upset about the events that took place.

“This is a million-dollar tournament. First place is $100K. I’m top 15 going into the last game,” Clix vented about his scuffle with Unknown. “Just cause I sniped this kid and danced as a joke. He’s teaching his 30,000 viewers that it’s okay to cheat.”

Clix then retracted his cheating allegation because he noted that Unknown was instead griefing. The four-time FNCS Finalist continued voicing his outrage over Unknown’s action for quite some time.

Clix’s overall point was that Unknown threw his tournament due to a simple in-game encounter. This rivalry between two of Fortnite’s best shows how unpredictable the professional scene can be at times.

Ninja Chimes in

To all the griefers out there in Fortnite tournaments griefing peeps. pic.twitter.com/PEOIjQLEbu

— Ninja (@Ninja) May 24, 2020

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins released a video soon after, detailing his thoughts about griefing. He did not name Clix or Unknown specifically, but we have to imagine Ninja was referencing this situation.

“Do not grief players in tournaments because you no longer have a chance to qualify,” said Ninja in a Twitter video. “What if this person needs this money? You don’t know what they're going through.”

Like Ninja, many players feel that griefing violates the competitive integrity of esports. Professional players with thousands of viewers should set examples for their audience. There’s no sense in landing on a player who is flourishing to ruin their tournament. It’s bad practice, and it unfortunately runs rampant in the Fortnite community.

Will Unknown stick to his word?

We don’t know how exactly Unknown will approach tomorrow. Both players are in a tie at 67 points on the leaderboard. Cheater Neon is far ahead at the moment with 129. However, we’ve learned that anything can happen in competitive Fortnite. Clix and Unknown are two of the world’s best players. Either could rally back tomorrow and win the FNCS Invitational.

Unknown has already taken a lot of heat for his decision to grief Clix’s sixth match of the tournament. We will have to wait and see what develops as the FNCS Invitational concludes tomorrow evening.

Stay tuned to ESTNN for more Fortnite news and updates!