Planes and Infinity Blade Make Their Winter Royale Debut

Stage 2 of the Fortnite Winter Royale took place last night, and competitors weren't too happy with recent changes.

Last night was the first time professional Fortnite players were able to get their hands on airplanes and the infinity blade in a competitive setting. The results.... well.... they weren't too happy.

Ninja echoed the response to the blade's inclusion on his stream, saying that players were raging in the general chat.

Watching the tournament, it was easy to understand why. The blade gives players 400 hp along with passive healing, and the format of the Winter Royale offers competitors an additional HP boost when they kill someone.

The results? Absolute pandamonium late-game when the sword wielder routinely had their way with whoever was unlucky enough to still be alive. "Just build lul."

The only ones who were safe when the blade was wreaking havoc on the ground were the planes circling the sky. They gave players ultimate high ground and appeared to have a truce not to shoot each other while they floated in the neutral zone.

Those who were on the ground were not so fortunate. Ninja fell victim to a plane crash and didn't like the way it tasted.

While viewers undoubtedly saw the absurdity of adding two game-changing items to the game within two days of a $1 million tournament, it's hard to deny that the tournament was fun to watch.

The sword solved one of the constant complaints about these pro-level matches - that there is too much turtling and camping in the late game. Of course, this was not the way people wanted to see this change implemented.

There were several other highlights from last night's Winter Royale, including Chap building his creator code during one of the games. He had already qualified, so it was time to have a little fun with it.

The Winter Royale was Fortnite's first tournament that featured open qualifiers to all. This meant that big names like Tfue and NickMercs had the same chance of qualifying as you or I did.

The grand finals will begin this evening at 5 PM EST (2 PM PST), where we will look forward to the same shenanigans as last night. We'll update you with more information after the tournament ends.