Epic Games has taken down a post in which they announced that anyone residing in Russia would be barred from participating in cash tournaments. This is in response to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, and it goes into effect on March 11th.
Due to the ongoing crisis in Ukraine, Epic Games appears to have added Russia to its list of countries that are ineligible to compete in competitive tournaments with cash prizes.
The company deleted their tweet and the blog post notifying the pro community of the ban shortly after making the announcement to the public.
Epic Games revealed a ban on Russian-based players in a since-deleted Tweet that would only apply to tournaments with cash prizes.
Originally set to take effect on March 11th, all players in the Russian region would be barred from participating in Fortnite tournaments with cash prizes.
This does not, however, imply that Fortnite is unavailable in the country. Officials stated on the defunct blog that “players residing in Russia will still be able to compete in non-cash tournaments and earn in-game cosmetic prizes.” This means that Russia-based players will have access to the regular game modes as well as some competitive tournaments.
According to the blog, any players in Russia who have unclaimed prizes from previous Fortnite tournaments have until March 22nd to claim them. Anything left unclaimed will be “frozen until Epic’s payment service provider is able to resume prizing support for players residing in Russia,” according to the statement.
It’s unclear why this post was taken down at the time of writing. Epic Games has been contacted for comment, and we will keep you updated as more information becomes available.
