Following the recent and controversial banning of nine year old Zenon from Fortnite, the game's most popular streamer, Ninja, has decided to weigh in on the situation. Ninja's opinion on the matter is basically the same as everyone else, that Epic Games was far too harsh on the nine year old boy given the nature of his offense.
For those that don't keep up with Fortnite news, Zenon is a nine year old streamer from Brazil who was recently dealt a harsh 1,459 day (4 year) ban for entering a ranked arena mode match on stream. Arena mode is Fortnite's take on competitive gameplay, and doing well in this mode will enable players to enter tournaments for money.
The reason Zenon was banned is that Fortnite requires competitors to be 13 years of age before competing in the Arena. Zenon, being only nine, was clearly breaking this rule, but many have challenged the ban decision with the #FreeZenon.
Ninja's tweet points out a couple of interesting things. For one, although tournament invites to stem from a player's rank in the Arena mode, the individual Arena matches themselves do not offer up any money whatsoever, making this ban seem disproportionate. Furthermore, the four-year ban would see Zenon unbanned just before he turns 13, which seems like an intentional message from Epic Games. Ninja does concede that Zenon shouldn't be allowed to play in Arenas given the rules currently in place, but continues to say that Zenon shouldn't be banned from other aspects of the game.
What makes the whole scenario especially bizarre is the harsh punishment for such an inconsequential action, especially given that the offender is a young boy and a minor. Zenon didn't cheat or use offensive language on stream towards other players, or do any of the other things that often result in Fortnite bans. All he did was enter a match in a game mode that the game itself didn't prevent him from entering, so a four-year ban for this seems completely uncalled for. Although Zenon took the news incredibly hard at first, he responded to Ninja's tweet thanking the star and expressing his adoration for him.
Surprisingly, many are being rather harsh towards Zenon in the comments, reinforcing that he deserves the ban for breaking the rules or blaming his parents for not raising him well. Hopefully, Zenon doesn't spend too much time on Twitter reading these kinds of hurtful comments.
Fortnite is available now for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.
Source: Comicbook.com