Streamers call for FaZe Jarvis’ ban to be shortened

The Fortnite community was recently left shocked to hear that FaZe Jarvis had been permabanned for using an aimbot, but now some high-profile creators are coming to his defence.

On November 3, Jarvis “Jarvis” Khattri posted a video to his YouTube channel titled “I’ve been Banned from Fortnite (I’m Sorry)”. The upload, which featured an openly emotional Jarvis explaining that he has received a lifetime ban for cheating, quickly went viral.

Of course, this soon became a massive point of debate amongst Fortnite fans, with everyone wanting to have their opinion heard. The Twitter hashtag #FreeJarvis was even trending in the UK at one point. Well, now some of the biggest names in the game have had their say, and they think that Epic Games need to reconsider.

When asked about his thoughts on the Jarvis situation on stream, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins expressed a clear view that the permaban was too harsh. He agreed that what Jarvis did was very wrong and worthy of punishment, but suggested that perhaps a six-month ban from competitive would suffice.

Ninja told viewers, “He’s still super young, so I think he’s just a stupid kid making a stupid decision… It wasn’t a tournament, wasn’t a Cash Cup”. This is feeling shared by many others, Jarvis was just trying to think of content ideas for YouTube, not wanting to cheat in order to beat others.

Discussing his opinion that Epic should handle Jarvis’ case differently to a random kid who hacks for the sake of hacking, Ninja said “There’s a difference between a content creator who has millions of subscribers, who then gets banned from what makes him money, and some kid who is just a piece of sh*t who has zero followings”.

Another popular Fortnite streamer who has spoken out on the subject is Ali “SypherPK” Hassan. He commented on the fact that Jarvis wasn’t trying to hide his use of aimbot, saying “what sucks is he wasn’t being malicious about it, he just did not think it through at all”.

Sypher shared Ninja’s feeling that perhaps content creators deserve a bit more lenience. He prefaced his statement by admitting “I know it’s kind of biased” but explained “everyone needs to be given the same terms, but sometimes exceptions can be made”.

He then went on to talk about the importance of the motivation behind Jarvis’ actions. Telling us “the only reason I feel like I would give Jarvis a second chance, is because of the intention”. Using the infamous case of Damion “XXiF” and Ronald “Ronaldo” Mach as an example; they literally cheated with the intention of stealing money from honest competitors, received a two week ban and still qualified for the Fortnite World Cup. In comparison to this, Jarvis’ offence was much less harmful, yet he has received infinitely greater consequences.

This last point is one that Felix “xQc” Lengyel also leapt on. During a recent Twitch stream, he mocked Epic Games, joking “If they unban him, it sends the message that you can cheat and get away with it. Oh wait, wait they already did that! With the other pro that cheated and was able to compete again and qualify and go to LAN!”.

Cheating in Fortnite certainly is a sensitive topic, and one that probably needs more attention. Many will argue that it goes on a lot more than we know, and that there is no way to avoid it. The developers could certainly make rules and punishments clearer to understand, this would help to prevent similar situations happening in the future. The young FaZe star is hoping that at least his foolishness will serve as a lesson to others.