Fortnite star Benjyfishy’s game crashes during $1.35M FNCS Grand Finals

While competing in the Fortnite Season 5 FNCS Grand Finals, NRG pro Benjy ‘Benjyfishy’ Fish was kicked from the day’s first match when his game crashed. Despite the setback, he and his team would return to the action and rattle off some impressive results.

Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 is winding down and with Season 6 kicking off on March 16, professional players are jumping into the seasonal FNCS Grand Finals. Some of the biggest tournaments outside of the Fortnite World Cup, Grand Finals are always a treat for pros to compete in.

The combined Season 5 FNCS prize pool is more than $3 million across all seven regions, and the best players in the world are out in droves to compete. With that much money on the line, and the competition so cutthroat, players want to be at the top of their game while fighting for the ultimate victory royale.

Unfortunately for Benjyfishy, his first match of day one was interrupted when his game experienced a hard crash. Despite being kicked out of the game, Benjy and his team came back in style and secured a second-place finish heading into day two.

The first match of the day started off fast, with Benjy and his two teammates — ‘Umplify’ and ‘Matsoe’ — dropping into Slurpy Swamp and grabbing loot. Roughly five minutes later, the trio had just entered a gunfight with another team when Fish was met with disaster.

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As he moved behind cover, his game froze and he immediately exclaimed “Wait, I think my game crashed, I think my game crashed!” As his team rushed to protect him, the streamer’s screen went black for a moment and then returned as he logged back into the main Fortnite menu.

Despite losing one-third of their team to the disconnect, Umplify and Matsoe put up a strong performance in the rest of game one. The two players managed to break into the top five rankings with a combination of high kills and placement even though they were at a disadvantage.

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Afterward, Benjy seemed confident he would avoid any issues in later matches. When loading into the second game, one of his teammates commented that they’d never seen him crash before, and Fish confirmed “I’ve never crashed [before this], no joke.”

Initially, it seemed the lobby would re-play the first game of the day, but this ended up not being the case. The action continued as planned, and in the second match, the team made an impressive statement by winning the game and racking up 17 elims in the process.

While game crashes are typically a one-off occurrence — unless an entire server or game lobby crashes at once — Benjy was not the only pro player to be impacted by issues in Season 5’s FNCS. Kyle ‘Mongraal’ Jackson, a fellow British pro competing for FaZe, had his hopes for FNCS qualification crushed by a similar disconnect.

Regardless of the issues during day one’s competition, Benjyfishy and his team put on an impressive performance and will be looking to secure the number-one spot — and its prize money — during Season 5’s second day of FNCS Grand Finals action.