Cody “Clix,” one of the biggest Fortnite content creators on Twitch, was banned by Epic Games for “teaming” in a competitive tournament. The ban, which is expected to last 14 days, will prevent him from participating in the Chapter 4 Season 2 Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) as well as its next iteration unless Epic decides to reduce his punishment.
The verdict has not gone down well with the Fortnite Competitive community since Clix had actually been trying to expose a stream sniper. Some believe that Epic Games is trying to make a statement against teaming by not making an exception for a massive streamer like Clix. However, most notable names in the Fortnite community agree that the punishment is too harsh since it is not limited to just a ban.
Clix’s FNCS career on halt as streamer receives two-week ban
Clix was playing the Solo Cash Cup on April 23, 2023, when he encountered a stream sniper. Frustrated by the blatant rule-flouting, he baited the stream sniper into following his instructions and proved that they were indeed watching his stream. However, he picked up one of the items dropped willingly by the stream sniper, the clip of which is presumably what led to the ban.
Following his name being removed from the tournament leaderboard and the verdict being conveyed, Clix went live and elaborated on the issue. He played the clip of the incident and demonstrated how the stream sniper, who is also banned now, had set out to ruin his game.
According to Clix, there is a chance that Epic delivered the verdict based on what they saw in the replay mode and not his stream, as the latter would have shown him visibly disturbed by the situation. Following this, he admitted to breaking the rules and apologized to Epic for losing his calm.
https://twitter.com/Clix/status/1650295648367828992
He said:
“I did break the rules right there, but I feel two weeks is a little bit too harsh and I would be happy with a seven day or three day, or even a warning, where I can play the next FNCS…I’m not trying to go off at Epic whatsoever, it’s more that I’m disappointed at the fact that I got a consequence off of someone else’s actions that I wasn’t even able to control.”
He posted a lengthy clip from this livestream on Twitter with the hashtag #FreeClix, which quickly gained traction.
Clix delivered an impressive performance in the first week of FNCS with Cented. The ban was, no doubt, a hefty blow for the streamer who moved to Texas this very season after Fortnite decided to combine the NA East and NA West regions into NA Central for Competitive.
Clix and Epic have always had a rocky relationship
This is not the first time that Clix has found himself in a tussle with Epic Games, far from it.
In February 2021, Clix insulted CEO Donald Mustard publicly on Twitter. In response to a picture posted by Mustard of the Super Bowl 55 halftime show, Clix first wished him well but followed it up with “u f****** bald f***.” Many joined in on the “joke” and threw insults as well. While no direct action was taken against him, there’s no doubt that this interaction cemented Clix in Epic’s bad books.
The month after, he was warned by the company for participating in Fortnite wagers. Epic Games has always frowned upon any kind of gambling activity being associated with the game, and Clix received a personal message asking him to stop.
Won't be playing or having anything to do with wagers anymore, just got personally messaged by epic and was told to stop or will result in a ban. Recommend others to stop as well, tweeting this so people are aware.
— Clix (@Clix) March 25, 2021
He would have presumably been banned from the game had he not paid heed to the warning.
In the summer of 2021, matters came to a head when Clix’s Support-a-Creator code was taken away. He was initially confused about what led to this punishment since he had not wagered since the warning. But, he later revealed on Twitter that Epic Games had taken the decision based on a controversial tweet, since deleted, in which he talked about putting laxatives in a girl’s drink.
He explained that he had thought his tweet would be perceived as a joke but acknowledged that he should have known better as a representative of an organization like Epic.
Soon after, Clix informed his community that Epic Games had asked the creator of all his maps to remove his name from the same. The company made it clear that it was trying to distance itself from Clix’s branding. It was not until January 2023 that the streamer was given access to his creator code again.
