Epic Games and the streamers were forever reaching out to the fans with amazing new tricks for these Fortnite ICON cups. But the famous streamer Jack ‘CouRageJD’ Dunlop did not wait and went straight to Epic. His request was for a gun that would be ‘in his own words, a gun that creates good content opportunities’. Epic indeed heard him loud and clear. They slipped through the exclusive item ‘The CouRage Crusher,’ which is pretty much his own take on the Kneecapper melee weapon just with a crazy twist— it will send rivals flying with a push force ten times the strength of the usual one. Just think about it; you hit someone just slightly, and he turns into a human cannonball. That is the whole story.
CouRage made this crazy edition for his ICON cup which is currently going on known and told the players to come and try to unlock a 100 Thieves emoticon and even earn his full cosmetic bundle early if they are playing well. ‘GOOD LUCK!’ he said, and his face was already showing that he was having fun with the chaos and people coming in and going out. The whole thing is for the most fun and clip-able moments. It does not even cause fall damage as the players using the weapon have said, which means that it is purely about the show. One player by the name of Glitchy was dead-on when he said: ‘That 10x knock-back is going to lead to some legendary clips for sure.’ It is a creator’s dream tool, indeed created for fun and those sharable, ‘wait, did you see that?!’ moments.
There has always been this association of a but with live events, and the launch was not a smooth one. To put it mildly, the community’s reactions were mostly… mixed. While there were a few players praising the idea, a significant part of the replies was taken up by the grievances over the tech. The players from Europe in particular were quite vocal about the problems that the cup had. ‘Its bugged on EU,’ said one player, another just said: ‘Maybe fix your shitty cup, we cant queue.’ The comments from users like ‘Broless’ asking if it was working in Europe and ‘Lupio93’ saying that a lot of people just could not get into the matches kept coming. It created a weird split in the conversation—everyone was talking about this great, playful new weapon, but a whole lot of gamers were not able to join in the tournament and just give it a try. Honestly, this was a classic live service gaming situation.
The discussion beneath the tweet changed into a weird combination of excitement and a tech support forum. Some players were already putting forward ideas, for example, ‘TheDespicableCat’ was curious if CouRage’s pickaxe and backbling would receive ‘noir’ editions to match his skin’s alternate styles. Others were just hunting for teammates, with ‘Jameel Yamaan’ saying, ‘Wish I could play but I got no duo,’ while ‘𝗖arti’ jokingly remarked, ‘Why would u make it duos, i dont have friends.’ It is the never-ending dilemma of the Fortnite duo tournament. Some users even asked CouRage directly for bundle codes, like ‘Morphus’ asking for one because they are a ‘big Igris fannnnn’—which, same, to be honest.
Amidst the chaos, some players who were lucky enough to get in shared their experiences. A user with the name ‘keyatron’ was not positive about the new bat’s impact: ‘ibr the bat does nothing ive played different regions and no one is using it for content but rotation 😭 They might aswell just add the old bat back already.’ So here is one view that it might not be the game-changing content machine that everyone was hoping for in case of non-competitive play. Another player, ‘Treegon,’ simply lamented that the game was ‘so laggy.’ The reception thus seems to be mixed regarding the chewing seconds of the in-game experience, where the weapon’s sheer fun factor is battling against practical issues and maybe a bit of underwhelm.
It’s very interesting to watch the development of these ICON cups. Especially, CouRage demanded a content-focused item and Epic delivered it. This is a very strong level of interaction between a creator and the developers. It sometimes reminds one of the fun items from the past as ‘Brave’ pointed out: it ‘Reminds me of the @Ninja boogie bomb!’ It is a sign that the scene is slowly being pushed to regain that pure and unadulterated fun even if just for a limited-time mode. The tournament itself, when it works, gives you the chance to win exclusive goodies, and that has always been a major draw. Moreover, CouRage also mentioned that he would be streaming it after ‘the Battle Royale‘ update. The PlayStation and Xbox communities are always eager for such events.
