Epic Games apologises to fans as it pulls super-powerful Infinity Blade blamed for ruining $1m tournament
Epic admits they 'messed up' with the 'overpowered' sword, and have removed it from the game effective immediately
EPIC GAMES has apologised to players and removed the Infinity Blade from the game.
It was the Battle Royale game's second Mythic item, granting whoever wielded it in-game huge power boosts and the ability to destroy whole structures with a single swing.
Announcing the change , Epic said: "we messed up and rolled out the Infinity Blade overpowered / without good counters, especially in the end game.
"The Infinity Blade has been Vaulted [removed from the game] and we are re-evaluating our approach to Mythic items... Thanks for calling us out on this!"
The sword, introduced to Fortnite earlier in the week, was blamed for ruining the North American heats for the $1m Winter Skirmish, as well as other modes in-game.
Qualifiers have been going on for several weeks, and the finals have just kicked off--with players having to contend with the sudden addition of fighters and an absurdly powerful sword, the Infinity Blade.
Even Fortnite's chief cheerleader, Twitch streamer Ninja, was displeased.
"To add the sword and to have these planes, in this tournament, it's just not what I qualified for," .
Other competitive players are similarly displeased. Ghost Bizzle said the changes resulted in "huge loss of respect for Fortnite."
Another, Avery 'Avxry' Lopriore of gaming clan Faze, demanded that the North American heats played with the blade were re-run under the pre-blade conditions that the EU heats had.
"Epic Games should apologies [sic] to this wave of Winter Skirmish players and redo heat 1 and revert the patch to how EU Skirmish was."
The Infinity Blade is the second 'Mythic' level weapon to be added to Battle Royale -- previously only the Infinity Gauntlet, part of the Avengers: Infinity War LTM had been in the top tier.
It "destroys structures in one blow" and deals 75 damage to players hit directly by its slash and 25 to those caught nearby.
Players wielding the sword also get other bonuses, including double health and shields, a movement speed boost, and bonus health on eliminating an opponent.
MOST READ IN GAMING
The ability to scythe through structures in one go with no ammunition limits or anything similar has a serious impact on the end of matches, which generally see players and teams rapidly building defences as they try to protect themselves from the other players who are left standing.
Players outside of the tournament have been complaining about the blade too. Team-based modes are suffering too, given the huge advantage provided by spawning on the side with Polar Peak, and hence the sword.
We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online news team? Email us at [email protected] or call 0207 782 4368 . We pay for videos too. Click here to upload yours.