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Although Brazil isn’t Fortnite’s shining competitive region, standout players still make their way to the main stage

K1nGOD was just 13 years of age when he put Brazil on the map with his impressive 5th place finish at the solo World Cup. His aggressive playstyle netted him some highlight worthy kills on top players such as Tfue and Yung Calculator. Not only that, but K1ng also secured a $900,000 purse for his efforts

Then 13 year old K1nGOD shares an emotional moment with his father

A region almost secluded from the rest of the world lives in its very own bubble. Looking past the language barrier, Brazil’s tournament times overlap the more notable NA-East and NA-West regions. It makes sense as to why new emergences in the Brazilian competitive scene go relatively unnoticed

Enter Zenon, stage left. At the young age of 9, this Brazilian superstar has already made a name for himself in the best way possible. According to FortniteTracker’s Power Rankings, Zenon went into the last weekend as the #2370th best player in all of Brazil. On top of that, he boasts a social following exceeding 100,000 on Twitch alone. Combine all of his socials including YouTube and this kid has over 300,000 supporters

Consider Zenon to be South America’s version of Faze’s youngest player H1ghsky. And as we all know about the tale of H1ghsky, Zenon would suffer a similar fate of being scrutinized for being under Epic Games’ age limit for competing in tournaments

In front of hundreds of viewers and accompanied by his father, Zenon was removed from his Fortnite game to be met with the simple yet life changing message ”This account has been banned”

The ban length? Nearly 4 years. This length is presumably intentional because that is how long it will take Zenon to turn 13. For clarification, the ban is limited to competitive tournaments and arena - not to be confused with a blanket ban

While it’s understandable that Epic has to enforce their TOS on legal matters, the circumstance is truly heartbreaking. Just last weekend, Zenon qualified for the Solo FNCS invitational with an absolutely dominating performance

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Zenon absolutely crushed the two day ladder, falling within the top 50 on both days. This level of consistency is almost unparalleled and definitely banked him into a top 5 position

But the new success would place watchful eyes where he would usually go under the radar. And once Epic found out about the Terms of Service breach, they had to take action

After it was revealed that Zenon wasn’t simply handed a tournament ban and Epic opted to hand a complete competitive, social outrage started. Not only is Zenon unable to shoot his shot in a huge tournament, he can’t even play Arena. All competitive play for this aspiring youngin’ has been crushed

Not 4 hours after the fact, #FreeZenon became the second highest trending tag on Twitter

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Over 100,000 people have banded behind Zenon including some notable names in the industry. Faze founder Banks added some much needed gas to the flame with his emotional plea to the Fortnite devs

I understand that there are rules in place for a reason. If you break TOS, you need to get punished… But a 4 year Arena ban absolutely cripples a kid’s dream at a professional Esports stint. How will he practice - or at the very least produce content that most likely funds his family’s livelihood? His dad actively runs Zenon’s stream and acts as his manager - what happens to them?

Hopefully the community’s push towards justice is just enough to have Epic reconsider the terms of the ban and can find a solid middleground. Until then, follow us on Twitter for updates

Author Bio

Michael Hindi

Michael “Hindog” Hindi is an active Fortnite player and journalist from San Diego, California. His involvement with competitive Fortnite dates back to Season 5 - both on the battle bus and with a pen & paper.

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