A Fortnite squad competing in March's EpikWhale Cup is causing a stir on Twitter, but not by qualifying in the finals — rather, there's some drama unfolding between teammates Cented and Deyy after the latter fell asleep and missed out on a match, putting the rest of his crew, still very much awake, at a disadvantage. But the real news isn't necessarily that an overworked competitor simply fell asleep, rather that the teammates chose to hash out their grievances on Twitter, for their collective audiences to see.
The competition in question is the debut of the EpikWhale Cup, created in collaboration between the pro player of the same name and Fortnite developer Epic Games. The four-person squad competition offered up a prize pool of $10k, which is pretty sizeable considering the tournament's comparatively smaller size. While it isn't exactly the pinnacle of the Fortnite season, it serves as a prep event for the upcoming Fortnite Champion Series. Competitive players Cented and Deyy, who already has a prolific competitive Fortnite career despite only being 15, teamed up with other top-rated players Commandment and NRG Edgey in order to participate in the tourney, which kicked off on March 11.
But while the team had a strong start, and scored second position in qualifying for finals, there was trouble in paradise when Deyy disappeared for an entire 5-game match, because, as it turns out, he'd decided to take a nap before the match started, which resulted in him missing it entirely. This meant his teammates couldn't queue up for the match, and raised the ire of Cented, particularly after Deyy made a few tweets that were ultimately dismissive of what had gone down. Deyy, who, again, is 15 and does have a regular high school schedule, initially disregarded the issues that arose from his power nap, but Cented took to Twitter to publicly admonish him for his perceived lack of professionalism. None of the tweets were deleted, and Deyy has since issued an apology.
The entire situation shows that there's a conversation to be had about minors competing in high-stakes esports, especially when they're still in school. While Deyy didn't conduct himself with any real maturity, it's understandable given his age, and this will likely be a hard but necessary lesson for him to learn. Cented recently parted ways with Team Liquid to sign on with FaZe Clan, and it's likely he wanted to make a strong impression, but airing out his grievances against his teammate on Twitter was not a particularly professional move, although it's easy to understand his frustration — esports are his career, while Deyy has more pressing obligations and isn't yet at a point where he can compete as a full-time career, if he chooses to.
What's important is that the two players ultimately reconciled at the end, and are hopefully the wiser for the whole situation before season 6 starts up. The two Fortnite players continue to banter on Twitter in a public show of camaraderie, and Cented, to his credit, is now reminding his followers what he probably should've remembered in the first place - Deyy is 15, and has a lot going on without the competitive community giving him grief.