Should Fortnite add a “fill” option for Arena?

The setting would allow players to be automatically matched with teammates of a similar rank.

The concept of Arena fills is nothing new, in fact the community has wanted it for some time. Replies to a recent tweet by FaZe Clan star Timothy “Bizzle” Miller show that the idea is still incredibly popular.

trio arena fill would be cool

— Bizzle (@FaZeBizzle) October 18, 2020

Fortnite has always offered a “fill” option when searching in the core Duos and Squads playlists as well as for the various Limited Time Modes. This means that even if you don’t have enough people in your party to complete a full team, you can join forces with fellow gamers for the battle.

Since its addition in Season 8 of Chapter 1, Fortnite’s Arena mode has not afforded players the same luxury. Introduced as a ranked playlist and a way to unlock entry to exclusive tournaments, it has always been impossible to join a team mode such as Arena Duos or Trios without a pre-made party.

One reason that competitive Solo events see significantly higher levels of participation than team modes is the huge barrier to entry. It can be difficult for the average player to find people to play with and this problem only gets bigger as you move from Duos to Trios to Squads.

Arena fills would be a great place to discover potential teammates. If you match with someone who seems like a good fit, you would then be able to add them as a friend and continue searching together.

This would also open up the door to a wealth of content opportunities. Top pros tend to stick to Arena rather than playing public matches, a fill option could mean the revival of random duos style videos, which were a massive part of Fortnite’s early success on YouTube and Twitch.

Some key concerns with Arena fills would be toxicity after bad games and teammates who do not communicate. It would certainly be annoying to lose your hard-earned hype because someone isn’t using their mic.

The issues above could be addressed by an updated reporting system. Perhaps repeat offenders could receive Arena “time-outs” of an increasing period as a deterrent.

All in all though, the positives seem to outweigh the negatives. Competitive matchmaking is a vital feature in many of the biggest esports titles, such as League of Legends and CS:GO. If Epic were to make a major change like this, it would probably come at the start of a new season, so we will have to wait and see what happens.