The Truth About FaZe Jarvis' Fortnite Return

FaZe Jarvis recently blew people's minds when he announced his intention to stream Fortnite, a game that he has previously been banned from playing. However, there was so much more to this so-called return stream than meets the eye, and the entire internet apparently fell for it.

On Friday, Jarvis tweeted his intention to return to his favorite game. He wrote, "It's been nearly a year since Epic banned me. Tonight @ 6PM PST I'm playing Fortnite for the first time back on Twitch. See you there."

The responses to Jarvis' announcement tweet ranged from skeptical to enthusiastic. It seems that many of Jarvis' fans greatly missed watching him play Fortnite, so it was looking like the turnout for this stream was going to be massive. Between longtime fans and people who were curious to see how this would go, it seemed like Jarvis could count on plenty of people tuning in. What he seemingly didn't expect was what happened next.

Even before Jarvis' "return stream" began, it seemed that Epic Games was well aware of his plans to try streaming Fortnite again. The day of the ill-fated broadcast, noted games insider Rod "Slasher" Breslau apparently reached out to Epic regarding FaZe Jarvis' status. Slasher reported, "an Epic Games spokesperson has confirmed Jarvis is still banned from Fortnite." In other words, it looked like Jarvis would be quickly shut down, even if he actually did begin streaming the game.

FaZe Jarvis went live on Twitch, announcing it to his fans via Twitter. Within minutes, however, he found himself kicked out of the game. As can be seen in a clip of the incident, Jarvis stared in shock as he was taken to a menu screen telling him that his account was logged in elsewhere or that his account had already expired. While a second ban isn't exactly surprising, it was the quickness with which is occurred that seemed particularly incredible.

Not only that, but he also supposedly received a message from his manager almost immediately. His manager was telling him, in no uncertain terms, to stop streaming Fortnite. In the clip, Jarvis continued to look positively shell-shocked by this turn of events, repeating again and again that he couldn't believe he was already banned.

Shortly after the end of the broadcast, some fans theorized that Jarvis wasn't banned by Epic, but instead someone else hacked his new account and logged in as him, which got him booted from the game. There were also a few people who believed that the stream wasn't actually real, but that Jarvis and his friends had staged the entire event as a prank on the fans. As insane as that possibility seemed, it turns out that is almost exactly what went down. 

In a video posted to his YouTube channel, Jarvis walked fans through the entire sequence of events. From posting his tweet about returning to Fortnite to having someone else log into Fortnite while he pretended to be playing, Jarvis concocted a perfect prank on both his fans and his haters. The part that was real? The second ban itself. That's right; as a consequence of the prank, nobody at FaZe House can play Fortnite because the IP address is now banned. Hopefully the prank was worth all of that.

FaZe Jarvis was banned last year for posting a video in which he used aimbots while playing Fortnite. These are hacks that essentially do all of the targeting for the player, and they've become the bane of shooter gamers everywhere. In response to his ban, Jarvis posted an emotional video pleading his case and asking for his account to be reinstated. When that failed to work, he dropped a diss track and accompanying music video that took aim at his haters and Epic Games. Needless to say, "Banned 4 Life" didn't exactly light up the music charts, and Jarvis remained banned from Fortnite.

Epic Games has garnered a reputation in the last year for handing out some intense bans and suspensions for Fortnite gamers. Earlier this year, 9-year-old streamer Zenon was suspended from Fortnite after logging in to play an Arena Mode match, which is for gamers 13 or older. However, this was more than a normal suspension, as Zenon will now be unable to play Fortnite for another four years.

In related news, Epic Games has been dealing with its own particular kind of ban. Just last month, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store due to what was seen as a breach of contract on the part of Epic Games. This has resulted in the loss of around 60% of Fortnite's player base, according to Epic Games.