Fortnite: Season X Has Completely Changed Competitive Fortnite

Fortnite's Season X has completely changed the competitive landscape of the most popular battle royale in the world.

Fortnite Season X

Epic Games released Fortnite two years ago, and over that time it has endured a multitude of changes. Fans have seen locations, equipment and weapons come and go, and many of these items and locations were near and dear to player's hearts. An important topic is how seasonal patches affect the competitive scene. The game has evolved and the current competitive meta heavily relies on building, editing and rotating. This is a direct result of the emphasis put on placement points in professional matches. Season X might have changed all that, however.

Fortnite Season X, released on August 1st, has shaken the landscape of the game. From a competitive point of view, rotations will be much more difficult in the coming months. Epic Games has chosen to vault the Glider Redeploy, Baller, Shadow Bomb, Flint Knock Pistol and Quad Crasher. All of these items have proven extremely useful in high-level matches. Of all the vaulted items, the Baller is quite possibly the most volatile of the bunch. Many Fortnite pros felt that the Baller provided an opportunity for a player to turtle and survive for placement. Others felt as though the Baller added a unique element to the game for rotation. There is a lot of mystery surrounding how the endgame will play out in the future.

The Overall Effect of Season X Changes

The previously mentioned items were crucial to securing placement points for the top players. Additionally, Epic Games has also removed slipstreams, guisers and sky bases from Fortnite. This decreases the already limited rotational options in the battle royale. Many of in-game strategies revolved around these items. The change will severely limit a player’s ability to drop, loot and rotate to the zone with relative ease.

people happy about ballers being patched but I didn’t mind them, just means now there will be more people landing at main pois which means less loot and more rng off spawn 🙁

— benjyfishy (@benjyfishy) August 1, 2019

In fact, there has been a noticeable difference in opinions on these changes. Benjy ‘Benjyfishy’ Fish of NRG Esports took to Twitter and stated that, “people happy about ballers being patched but I didn’t mind them, just means now there will be more people landing at main pois (sic) which means less loot and more rng off spawn :(.” Indeed, the double-qualified World Cup contender has a point. Randomness is already an intricate part of Fortnite. If a player lands and the loot in their area is sub-par, there won't be a great opportunity to make it deep into the endgame. For professional players, this has the potential to dictate how highly they place.

Potential Positives

On the other hand, the elimination of these rotational items will force more engagements between players. Although rotational items still exist in the form of Shockwave Grenades and Launch Pads, many options to retreat from a fight after taking damage are gone. At the very least, fans may witness more fights as Epic has effectively nerfed turtling for placements with the Season X changes. This may lead to players pushing for eliminations for the potential of guaranteed points.

There’s no telling exactly how this will all play out until professional scrims ramp up. With weapons vaulted and mech suits added, the competitive Fortnite scene is in a complete frenzy. One glance around the internet will show you how displeased the vast majority of Fortnite players are with the latest update. The immediate future is not promising, but it is also too early to make that declaration. Regardless of how Epic Games reacts to the outcry, the next few months of competitive Fortnite will be interesting to watch.

Image VIA: Epic Games