Recent roster “snaking” highlights need for org-based teams

Fans of professional Fortnite know that this game isn’t like most others.

In traditional esports games like Valorant, CS, Rocket League, Overwatch, etc. organizations build a team to represent them in tournaments.

In Fortnite, it’s all on the players. You can play with whomever you want and don’t need to have any organizational ties to compete at the highest level.

Epic Games

On one hand, this is great for the competitive community. In theory, anyone can grind their way to the top and come from nowhere to win a massive Fortnite tournament.

On the other hand, it leads to drama, immaturity, and public childishness from the top pros in the game.

Fortnite has a notoriously young pro scene, and these players are all deciding who to team up with for each tournament.

As you may know, this leads to a ton of drama on Twitter whenever a popular trio splits.

Snakes on a UFO

We saw this happen early this week in NA – a region that may have the most “snaking” in all of Fortnite.

One of the only teams that formed around their org, Mero, Deyy, and Reverse, split up. Bugha was going to join Deyy and Mero, leaving Avery high and dry.

After Bugha left him, Avery wanted to play with a team the knew best, Stretch and Saf. They had already planned on replacing him with Khanada, though, which would have left the latter holding the bag.

It all worked out, eventually. Everyone went back to where they came from, with Bugha looking like the bad guy to most of the community – likely unfairly.

Do you see how petty and immature this all seems? Stuff like this gives the already juvenile Fortnite scene even less credibility.

This all brings me to my point: that orgs need to get back in control of professional Fortnite.

Epic Games

Treating Fortnite players like a racing team

OG fans of pro Fortnite know that it wasn’t always like this. In fact, the days of Team Liquid vs FaZe Clan vs TSM were the best days in competitive Fortnite.

Roster swaps happen all the time in esports, but they instantly become more official when orgs are trading and loaning players rather than letting the inmates run the asylum.

If Valorant is the NBA, then Fortnite should be NASCAR. Orgs could sign Trios and Solo specialists to compete for them.

Epic Games

In any given tournament, NRG or FaZe could have two or three teams competing under their banner. They’re all technically on the same team but are still fighting against one another.

The issue with orgs and Fortnite extends past the petty drama between players. Right now, there’s no incentive for an org to sign anyone in Fortnite who isn’t a Solo player or a content creator.

What benefit does Liquid get when their top competitive Fortnite player is teaming with one member of TSM and one free agent?

Epic Games

Compare that to what the Sentinels organization gained from having their Valorant team win Masters 2. Why would an org spend money on Fortnite, the way things are right now?

As a result, you have a large portion of top Fortnite players searching for an org to represent. Many popular orgs have completely divested from competitive Fortnite, especially in NA.

The whole Fortnite scene is laughably unprofessional right now and we need an adult in the room. No solution is going to be perfect, but anything is better than the Twitter “snaking” we have right now.