Kquid's Fortnite Ban Drama Explained

Earlier this week, 14 year old Fortnite pro Kai "Kquid" Eaton was seemingly banned by Epic Games out of nowhere. However, the saga of Kquid's ban has snowballed into one accusation after another. Fans are trying to figure out exactly what happened, so why don't we take a look at what we know so far?

It began when Kquid apparently noticed some weird activity on his account. Shortly afterward, he discovered that he had been banned. In a confusing post, he tweeted, "Ban me mid tournament for no reason? I was playing on a different pc cause my other one would kick me out whenever i tried playing a game? I dont have a VPN and i stream EVERYDAY and stream EVERY tournament how do i cheat?" This was accompanied by a screenshot of the Epic Games Store, which showed a "Banned" notice in the top right corner. 

Adding to the confusion, Kquid later tweeted, "Who just logged onto my account mid game lmao," seemingly accusing someone of trying to use his account while he was playing.

Fans were still unsure about what happened, so Kquid tweeted an explanation. According to Kquid, his personal computer kept getting booted out of Fortnite matches. He couldn't understand what was happening, so he instead moved to using his brother's computer so he could continue playing. Kquid wrote that he thinks this may be why he was banned, since he changed PCs between Fortnite Champion Series games. However, he also pointed out that multiple other streamers have done similar things during Fortnite Champion Series, so it's unclear why Epic Games would choose to ban him for it in this instance.

As one fan on Reddit mentioned, "[Playing on] a new PC wouldn't get him banned. Unless someone else is on his account, it's the only legit reason."

The plot continues to thicken, however. According to a report from Essentially Sports, there are now multiple accusations that have been leveled at Kquid for supposedly cheating. YouTuber SerpentAU has assembled some rather convincing evidence in favor of this theory.

SerpentAU initially accused Kquid of using some kind of aim assist while playing. According to SerpentAU, files related to these types of aim assist programs were visible on Kquid's desktop during a recent stream. SerpentAU also pointed out that Kquid's claims about having PC problems don't particularly make sense in light of other recent posts. Specifically, SerpentAU shared screenshots of a Twitter thread where Kquid mentions having recently put his PC through a factory reset.

The accusations didn't stop there, however. SerpentAU has also uploaded a video of Kquid playing Fortnite with the caption, "We're wrong guys, Kquid didn't use aim assist. HE USED LITERAL AIMBOT."

These are serious accusations, particularly in light of recent bans issued by Epic Games. Last year, FaZe Jarvis was the subject of a high profile scandal when he uploaded videos to his YouTube channel demonstrating aimbots to his viewers. In these videos, he explained how the aiming programs worked and how other players could go about getting them. This was apparently the final straw for Epic Games. Despite the fact that he wasn't using these aimbots in competitive play, FaZe Jarvis received a lifetime ban from the game for his actions.

At the time, a spokesperson for Epic Games told Polygon, "We have a zero tolerance policy for the usage of cheat software. When people use aimbots or other cheat technologies to gain an unfair advantage, they ruin games for people who are playing fairly." 

It appears as though this may be the case with Kquid, but there has yet to be any definitive statement issued by Epic Games on the matter. It's worth noting, however, that Kquid is apparently planning to weigh in on the controversy very soon. This morning, he posted to Twitter, "Making a statement soon, just wanting to work on it super professionally, [I've] barely been on twitter which is super good, want to back up every single point with nothing else that can be said back."

In other words, Kquid is putting together a defense that he hopes will erase any confusion or suspicion. He may have to do quite a bit of explaining, however. Just last month, Kquid posted a gameplay video to his YouTube channel literally titled "Aim Assist, but on Keyboard and Mouse." The comments section is already flooded with people talking about his ban, so it'll be interesting to see how Kquid spins this.

We'll definitely keep an eye out for Kquid's statement, because this story is continuing to develop into quite the confusing rabbit hole.