UK-based Fortnite pros Mongraal and Benjyfishy have had enough of getting killed by traps in Fortnite
Epic Games created Fortnite Battle Royale took the building and tower-defense mechanics from their Save the World game and brought them to the Battle Royale format. No one knew that this subtle change to an existing genre would skyrocket Fortnite to the heights of gaming.
Traps have been a staple of Fortnite since Battle Royale first released. There were even more traps in the early days of Fortnite, but Epic eventually widdled them down to the Spike Trap – now a staple of the game.
The utility of traps has changed over the course of 11 seasons. They began as a way to sneak kills in houses and developed into one of the many strategic ways to kill your opponent.
Not everyone is happy with the state of traps in Fortnite. They give players a free 150 damage if placed correctly, which can seem like too much to some of the top-level competitors. These players often view simple trap kills as ‘low-skilled.’
We saw pro players Kyle ‘Mongraal’ Jackson and Benjy ‘Benjyfishy’ Fish discuss their trap frustrations on Twitter during a January 16 Solo Cash Cup. Both players felt the wrath of the traps and told their followers about it.
Mongraal, one of the most prolific ragers on Twitch, typed out a couple of all-caps, profanity-riddled tweets telling Epic to remove traps from Fortnite.
Benjyfishy took a subtler approach to the issue. He also included snipers in the discussion and took a sideswipe at controller players on the way by.
Benjy’s tweet telling his followers to “like to remove traps and snipers” got over 13,000 likes.
Traps are part of Fortnite and they always will be. They’re a necessary part of the game and, sometimes, the only thing keeping someone from forcing their way into your box. The fear that you could have a trap is enough to keep a lot of players from W-keying every box they see.
It’s probably time that Epic takes a look at the trap damage, however. Traps used to do 125 damage, which was later nerfed to 75 and then buffed to 150. Now, the bulk of the competitive community thinks that 100 might be the sweet spot for trap damage.
Most players in Fortnite are running around with 150 health. One trap shouldn’t mean the end of your game, but two traps should probably remain an automatic kill for 200HP players. Epic may tweak the numbers, but traps aren’t going anywhere in Fortnite.
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