Epic Games has created a buzz with the announcement of Fortnite‘s Ranked Cups, Week 2 of the ‘Road to Unreal’ series, and the first impression is that it is all very thrilling. New rewards, a new hustle, and the whole thing. But what was the community’s response? They were definitely not in the mood for celebration and instead were more like a dejected collective plus seriously angry. The official @FNCompetitive tweet that revealed the rewards produced a huge number of replies that basically say the same thing to the point: the ranked system is a little bit out of order at the moment. And when we use the term out of order, we mean ‘players cannot even play the mode’ level of extreme for a great number of players.
Let us make it simple. The communication from Epic is pretty much plain and clear: December 8, new Ranked Cup rewards for the ‘Road to Unreal’ event. Great! An image is included that shows some really impressive new cosmetic styles that are possibly for gliders or pickaxes, the usual reason why one would want to reach the top of the competitive ladder. But the comment section tells a completely different story. It is a textbook case of how technical problems can completely destroy a positive announcement.
The main and most common complaint is about a constant bug that completely prevents players from even entering the Ranked Cups. It looks like user after user is passing on exactly the same problem. ‘I can’t even play ranked cups; there’s a bug where it says I’m unranked, this has been happening since Supernova season in June,’ says player PL7. That’s about six months! Another player, Josh, very accurately expresses the situation: ‘Can’t wait to play the Solo Ranked Cups! Oh no, the “You are currently unranked. Play 1 ranked match to reveal your rank” bug is still there.’ It’s a vicious circle—play to get ranked, but the system says you’re unranked and won’t let you play. What a predicament!
And it is not just one person. It is more like the whole community is affected. ‘Fix the goddamn ranked cup bug, most of us can’t even play it,’ is the ultimatum of mtvvxz. Then 8BitCRPlays joins the conversation and says, ‘Please fix the bug that doesn’t let you play even though you have the rank to enter it.. I’m missing one of the cup styles because of this..’ The issue is that the players are not only locked out of the game but also are missing out on the rewards that they have rightfully earned. That must be painful!
But wait, the bug issue is actually getting larger. Even the players who can get in are facing additional problems. Matchmaking or SBMM (skill-based matchmaking) is under criticism. Player Bolt was not pleased: ‘The SBMM in these cups is just awful. I am in bronze getting beaten by players who are obviously WAYYY better.’ So the competitive integrity is in doubt, which makes the climb unfair, and not based on actual skill tiers. This is not at all the type of ‘Road to Unreal’ experience that they are trying to sell.
Then, there is the matter of rewards. AllyJax² pointed out a confusing aspect, asking if the new awards for the cups even include the special shimmering versions of items such as the umbrella. This started a mini-thread where others confirmed that even when one does have the special styles, they’re still bugged in-game. ‘The glider styles are also just bugged ingame and show the base one anyway,’ wrote OSG100. KyaniteDream reported having the same issue: ‘I got the Glowing Fame Brella yesterday and it doesn’t work. It is still the same as the original.’ So basically, you grind to unlock something cool and the cool thing… just doesn’t work. What’s the deal?
The annoyance is like a live wire and it extends to the areas outside the current cup. The players are invoking past promises, which are still in the air. AMemoryXMisread is reminding Epic of a former promise: ‘When are you fixing the bugged ranked styles you promised to fix multiple times though? Got unreal more than once with nothing to show for it…. Because the rewards didn’t unlock properly.’ That is a very serious breach of trust. If you can’t be confident you’ll get what you earned in a competitive mode, why even bother grinding?
Other grievances are scattered throughout the posts giving a picture of a community that is feeling a bit neglected. Some are asking for FNCS details while others want the return of the old movement animations, and one player even claims to have seen some crazy ‘toxic power abuse’ by someone with internal access. However, the main topic is that of the basic functionality being broken.
This is really such a pity because the idea is great. Weekly ranked cups with guaranteed rewards are, in the battle royale genre, a solid concept. The PlayStation and Xbox communities are similarly passionate about their games, and when core features fail, frustration is universal. Epic Games needs to address these persistent bugs to restore faith in their competitive Fortnite experience.
