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It’s something that the community have wanted for a long time, and it seems that Epic have finally listened.
Fortnite Chapter 1 lasted a little over two years, and during those 10 seasons, the game changed drastically. Every couple of weeks some new item was added, things were vaulted as well but still the loot pool became incredibly diluted.
By the latter end of Chapter 1 it really had become a gamble as to what loadout you may find. This was especially problematic off spawn. Your enemy may find a Shotgun off the rip, whilst you check 2 chests and 3 floor loot spawns just to be left with a sniper, some bandages and a couple stacks of wood. On top of this, getting hold of shield often seemed like an impossible quest.
Of course, these regular updates and new additions were what made Fortnite so popular. For casual players, this kept the game fresh and gave them a reason to sign on. However, for pro players, all this did was increase RNG and make it feel a lot less consistent. The competitive community suggested a separate loot pool for Arena and tournament matches that would be much cleaner and leave out unnecessary or overpowered items such as Junk Rifts.
The current loot pool in Fortnite is such a joke. I literally get grey ak, semi auto sniper or a grey burst in literally EVERY one of my first chests..
— FaZe Thiefs (@Thiefs) June 15, 2019
Unfortunately, Epic Games weren’t interested. Their philosophy was to have competitive Fortnite mirror the core modes as closely as possible, in order to make it more appealing to the casual fans. Whilst this may have seemed logical from a business perspective, it dramatically reduced competitive integrity and a lot of pro players lost their love for the game.
All this changed when Fortnite Chapter 2 started. Reflecting the early days of Chapter 1, the loot pool was completely stripped back, leaving just a basic selection of weapons and items. The only real issue was Grenade spam, which improved once the max stack size was decreased and will be even less of a problem in Duos. For a long time nothing new was added, barring the Harpoon Gun, which had the community wondering whether it would all go to wrong once the content updates began to pick up. Fortunately, it seems not.
Patch v11.30 introduced a few new items, including the Sneaky Snowman. Following on from that, the recent live in-game Star Wars event ended up adding both Lightsabers and First-Order Blaster Rifles into the mix. Almost exactly a year on from the introduction of the infamous Infinity Blade, there was a brief scare that we would see people running around with Lightsabers during the Winter Royale.
We've come a long way since last year's Winter Royale.
— Ballatw (@Ballatw) December 15, 2019
I'm extremely grateful that I can enjoy the lightsaber and other recent additions in a separate setting. BUT I can still play and practice the game I love competitively - without game breaking items and changes.
Thank you!
However, this time around the developers have got it right! Excluding a couple of naturally spawning Snowmen which are quite rare and have had their damage nerfed, none of these crazy weapons have made it into Arena or tournament playlists. This makes a world of difference and suggests that Epic are serious about making competitive Fortnite a success in Chapter 2.
Hopefully, this will remain true going forward. If they can keep a healthy balance between exciting updates and changes in core game modes, whilst maintaining integrity in competitive, we could be in for a fantastic year of Fortnite.
