Epic Games respond to allegations they failed to pay Fortnite pros

Epic Games has responded to recent allegations from Fortnite pro players and content creators regarding a failure to pay them tournament winnings and Support-A-Creator earnings, citing “two separate issues” that led to the ongoing payment delays on both fronts.

Epic came under fire from the Fortnite community again earlier this week after the revelation they had failed to pay numerous pros following DreamHack Anaheim.

Morgan ‘RepulseGod’ Bamford and Evan ‘Cented’ Barron led the allegations. They revealed Epic owed each of them thousands of dollars worth of prizes, including their share of the DH Anaheim prize purse. Repulse placed fourth at the February event ($12.5k winnings), while Liquid’s Cented placed 40th ($1,750).

Soon after, several more pro stars joined the chorus of demands, including Oceanic duos star Overt Punk. He revealed he hadn’t been paid out for FNCS heats, and when he reached out to Epic they rebuffed his initial claims.

https://twitter.com/Punkkrr/status/1273811048928182272

After just under 24 hours of silence, the Fortnite developers reached out to Dexerto’s Fortnite Intel to address the situation. Epic suggested they had encountered “multiple delays” in the days after Anaheim “due to additional California state tax withholding.”

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“All prizes for DreamHack Anaheim have been sent directly to player bank accounts. These prizes should be deposited in the respective winners’ accounts in the next few days. We apologize for the delay,” they continued.

Epic also confirmed a “clerical error” had held up overpayments for some players in online cups, and had required manual correction. After that correction, all payments for winners should be processed “in a more timely manner.”

The Fortnite developers also addressed another ongoing financial issue that had arisen at the same time as the missing pro player payments: Support-A-Creator payouts, and a series of scams related to the benefits program.

“Regarding Support-A-Creator payouts, there are two issues. The first relates to obstacles as we transition to a new payment system, including bugs. We appreciate Creators who have been patient as we make this transition,” they said.

The second issue, Epic continued, was related to “creators who have violated the terms of the Support-A-Creator program” through actions that scammed or defrauded other Fortnite players. These included “false promises” relating to codes.

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“When these accounts are detected or reported, we remove these creators from the program and do not pay out their fraudulent accounts,” Epic said. “We take these violations seriously, and are looking at additional measures to prevent bad actors from abusing the program, up to and including potential legal action.”

While this official statement doesn’t immediately take care of all the payment problems that have been flagged over the past week, it looks like the ball is finally rolling. For now, if you are involved, stay patient ⁠— Epic is finally on the job.