The famous streamer Jack ‘CouRageJD’ Dunlop has recently taken to Twitter to clarify the rumors about his skin in the Fortnite Icon Series and request that people not send him images that are not real. The post, which just said ‘THESE ARE NOT REAL. STOP SENDING THEM TO ME,’ was accompanied by a collage of four extremely poorly done pictures of his face on different Fortnite character models. This case has brought about a lot of smiles, hype and uncertainty in the gaming community, particularly with the rumors of his skin’s official release being just around the corner.

So, what’s going on? CouRageJD is one of the leading streaming personalities, and Fortnite’s Icon Series is a section for content creators where they get their own in-game skins and immortality, so to speak. The players have been waiting for the CouRage skin for a long time. The anticipation is very high that the fans—sorry, gamers—have even gone the extra mile to create their own mock-ups. And let’s just say the creativity is… pretty much limitless. The “leaks” ranged from a very poorly rendered ‘Daddy Pig’ character to a big ‘Caseoh build’ reference, and even one that had him with other streamers in Fortnite’s ‘Save the World’ mode. The reactions to his tweet were a complete circus, a wonderful mixture of the excitement and the trolling that made the confusion.

A Twitter user, @Poppisicle1020, posted that ‘Holy am I copping the courage skin,’ and that very clearly represented how very enticing some of these attributions might be, even if they are actually quite absurd. Another user, @ConnerClay25494, lightheartedly charged CouRage himself with leaking: ‘Yo courage, stop leaking your Icon skin dude come on man I wanted to be surprised.’ This was a sentiment widely shared by many genuinely hyped persons, such as @CiscoRevo who commented, ‘Can honestly say, I haven’t been as excited for the Icon release as much as this one. Long overdue.’ The truth of the matter is that the demand is very high which is why these fake leaks are so annoying to the streamer.

But the question is, why is he so irate? It is like constantly being faced with a bad portrait of yourself and being asked if it is your new official picture. It becomes tiresome very quickly. Some of the replies did not even get the point, for instance, @KyNightmarex just questioned ‘Are you sure?’ while @SRWDV1PER claimed ‘Pretty realistic to me.’ Others really went with the flow of the joke, for example, @PokeyStarry posted a manipulated image of a very fat CouRage character with the caption ‘This one’s my favorite. 💀🤌🏼’. The community’s reaction is a typical blend of genuine support and pure, unrestrained meme craziness.

This all leads to the conversation about an odd modern gaming phenomenon: the pre-release hype cycle where fan-made content can at times overshadow the real thing. Gamers are so desperate for news that they will latch onto anything, and creators like CouRage have to be constantly vigilant against the dissemination of false information. He even got a note of support from @HunterRayder93, who mentioned that being a new creator getting a skin made them curious about learning more about him thus confirming that such instances could actually result in a positive growth of a streamer’s audience.

What was I talking about? Oh, the fakes. It’s not all just fun and games, either. The excitement is because Epic Games’ Icon Series releases are significant events. They not only bring a large number of viewers to the creator’s streams but also a new batch of players into the item shop. When a skin is as much anticipated as CouRage’s, the rumor mill works at full speed. Some comments, like that of @ddyysq70021, were asking for authentic information, inquiring ‘So will this be a separate skin like they did with homer?’. Others, like @iiTzKamui, were already speculating about edit styles: ‘hopefully there’s a shirtless edit style 😏’. The expectations are very high.

In the end, CouRageJD’s plea is a reminder that not everything seen on the Internet is true, especially in the case of the quickly changing gaming leaks. The community’s enthusiasm is great—and indeed, very funny—but it can be a headache for those who are at the center of it. The streamer has a massive reveal planned, likely for his next stream as hinted by several commenters, and he wants that moment to be special, not spoiled by ridiculous photoshops. So, gamers, maybe give the guy some time. The real skin is on its way, and judging by the reception of these fakes, it is going to be an instant buy for a lot of players. Just

PlayStation and Xbox gamers are also familiar with these hype cycles.