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Ninja's reputation cleared by Epic after speculation that he has the power to ban Fortnite players

Ninja's reputation cleared by Epic after speculation that he has the power to ban Fortnite players

Fortnite star Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins came under fire this weekend amidst rumours that he has the authority to have Fortnite users banned from the game.

Footage from a stream showed the streamer reporting a player for "stream sniping" - the act of purposely finding a broadcaster's game with the intent to kill them while they're live on air.

Blevins also recently reported another Fortnite player for 'having high ping', who was later banned from the game allegedly. However, it was later discovered that said player had just changed the name of the account to make it look like Blevins had reported him for his ping.

Blevins reporting a player for high ping

Developer response

Epic actually looked into the situation and responded to the backlash via a Reddit post. It looks as though the Fortnite player reported by Blevins actually changed its name to an account that was banned in a YouTube video back in October.

Fellow streamers hopped in to defend Blevins. DrLupo tweeted that the account names were swapped around to "incriminate Ninja and make it look like Epic bans whoever he reports".

Blevins quoted said tweeted and added: "worst part is the majority of people who saw that Redditt post won't see what you just tweeted and will continue to think he was banned."

However, Blevins has now been cleared of any wrongdoing by Epic. It seems that the individual in question is attempting to mess with the broadcaster. Given the meteoric year that Blevins has had, it's unsurprising that there are some community members keen to tarnish his reputation.

Editor

Danielle Partis is editor of PocketGamer.biz and former editor of InfluencerUpdate.biz. She was named Journalist of the Year at the MCV Women in Games Awards 2019, as well as in the MCV 30 under 30 2020. Prior to Steel Media, she wrote about music and games at Team Rock.