Fortnite Competitive has shared updates for this weekend and judging the reaction, the community definitely seems to be watching. There is the Blitz Cup: One Swing on Sunday and for competing in the tournament, the Saitama medallion will be given to all players competing. The phrase used was “all players” so I wonder if that’s as impressive as it sounds.
For those unfamiliar, Saitama is the protagonist in One Punch Man, and the Saitama medallion is the coveted cosmetic item that Epic Games will now give to every player joining their tournament. Which is… interesting?
The announcement was made by the Fortnite Competitive Twitter account, and as always, included the usual “check the Compete tab for times in your region” reminder. What’s more notable—if not quite as expected—is the participation reward. Finishing very high in the tournament is required to get this prize, but this time participation is essentially free.
That also spawned a lot of discussion in the reply section. Questions on how the mode works started coming in instantly. “Is this pickaxe only or are there guns?” asked Spyninjafan3, which is quite a valid question since it is named “One Swing,” which could also mean melee-only combat.
Then, there were people like Falcon Squishgraal who just wanted some form of clarity: “Is it only the saitama medallion” as if there are possibly other rewards too? But the tweet is pretty clear so it seems like it’s only that single item for everyone.
Not everyone is satisfied about this. Some of the competitive players are quite worried. User Ceficat wrote this in response: “no idea why ur giving everyone satiama medallion ts is not skillful at all joke of a company🤣).” It is understandable if you are a high-tier player who usually grinds for these rewards and feels a little insulted to watch them being given for free.
Then there’s the whole mobile player controversy. Burnn asked twice about having a mobile exclusive version of this cup as “mobile players have no chance otherwise” to compete against the console and PC players. And crockwing mentioned that mobile fps problems need to be resolved before any competitive events can take place on that platform.
Oh right, back to rewards structure. Another player named Fortnite Switch 2 said this: “Please find a way to reward players other than the top ranked ones. It’s impossible for the average person to have a shot at winning these. The top competitive players won’t even USE the rewards 99% of the time because all they have is black superhero star wand presets”
That’s actually pretty insightful. Most of the tournament rewards go unused by top players because best players tend to use their own well-known skins. Meanwhile casual players would love to get these items but they can’t level up to compete for the items. So Capping everyone with the medallion decidedly works out from that angle.
While most of the questions were game-related, there were also some random questions about the item shop like, “When is the nite unit marksman skin coming to shop?” and ”does this mean elite zadie will come to the shop this weekend.” Like guys, this is a competitive update, not a shop update!
There was a lot of confusion on how the format works. Players had to ask repeatedly whether or not the mode had guns or was pickaxe-only. The name “One Swing” seems to suggest melee-only so it does tie into the confusion.
And then you have the global people — some of the replies were in Portuguese like “és uma merda o jogo nao tem culpa” which translates to ”you’re crap the game is not to blame,” and you’d think that it doesn’t really make sense but people generally love to voice themselves.
The tone of the conversation is mixed. Some people are excited about tote cosmetics. Another group thinks it diminishes the value of competitive rewards, and some are completely unaware of mode details. Fortnite’s community tends to respond like this.
What we can tell from the tweets is that Epic is trying different kinds of reward systems in these competitive events. Instead of rewarding only the best, they are encouraging a larger group of players to participate by giving incentives for participation. So in my opinion, whether this helps or hurts depends on which side you look from.
Regardless of your skill level, to get your hands on the Saitama medallion, check the Compete tab this Sunday and register for the Blitz Cup: One Swing. Everyone receives the item. This is the takeaway. Yet another Fortnite tournament with yet another interesting twist.
