Epic’s taking further action against cheaters in Fortnite, although this time it’s in a bit of a different way. It’s not aimbot or any understood cheats they’re after this time, but Fortnite bot lobbies have been banned in Ranked. Epic is taking action against those utilizing bot lobbies and exploits with the party to get ahead, especially in Ranked. It’s one of their more confusing “crackdown” announcements though. It hasn’t really been made clear what’s been banned.Fortnite bot lobbies have long been an exploit utilized for a few different reasons. The most popular is to complete Fortnite weekly quests. These are challenges that sometimes get a bit easier in lobbies without real players. However, others use them for a similar reason. To get a lobby full of bots by exploiting the lobbies given to new players. Only some players use them to manipulate the ranked system. It’s this exploit that seems to have inspired the new crackdown from Epic. What’s changing with this latest attempt to cut out cheating?
Source: @FortniteStatus
Fortnite Bot Lobbies Getting Banned
With a recent update, Epic has clarified how they’ll be treating accounts using Fortnite bot lobbies. In a recent tweet, they said they were taking action against accounts who exploit party and account loopholes. Specifically with the aim of manipulating their “Ranked standing”, or “other competitive systems”.
They’ve said they’ll be making significant penalties against players who are utilizing the trick. While they rarely address the bots in-game or how they deal them out, this particular announcement has acknowledged it. Specifically, the bot lobbies that players seek to get into using this trick.
Essentially all players do is party up with a brand-new account. Those new players get slotted into bot lobbies until they gain a few account levels. So, by partying up with them, you’ll get these lobbies too. However, some players use this as an exploit to increase their standing in Fortnite Ranked modes.
The announcement has caused some concern for those who use the exploit in pubs to play Fortnite as a single-player game. However, the language in the announcement specifically addresses players using a Ranked exploit. At the moment it isn’t clear if the same penalties will apply to those using them just to grind XP in Fortnite. However, until things are clearer it might be safer to avoid the bot exploit until players find out what is happening.