Why am I writing this?
We have just come off a string of solos tournaments, including many major events. All of the Dreamhacks have been solos, including our last LAN of Dreamhack Anaheim… Season 2 ended with the FNCS invitational, and then went straight into FNCS Solos. A full season of solos. Now it’s not that these events weren’t full of excitement, and I didn’t enjoy them… they were, and I did. I just think that it is short sighted to have that as the main mode.
I believe this is detrimental to the development of competitive Fortnite viewership and playerbase, as well as detrimental to the longevity of the scene in general.
I want to be clear that I am not asking for the complete removal of solos, as they are a WONDERFUL entryway and introduction into competitive Fortnite. I think there are many places where solos fit in a competitive ecosystem. However, when it comes to majors, or where the main competitive focus should be, I don’t think solos plays or presents the true potential of the game, in the LONG TERM.
This post attempts to explain why I think this.
As always, I encourage you to read the entire thing before making judgments or assuming things. This is constructive feedback, and the WHOLE topic has a LOT of small details and nuance that have to be taken in its entirety, rather than a black and white situation.
Fandom
When it comes to solos, being a fan is hard. It feels like every event other than world cup, I come out feeling all sorts of ways. In many cases I don’t know how to feel… the players I’m cheering for placed all over… none of them won. I might become a fan of a few new players, which is nice… but I can never build attachment.
I think the average person goes into a Dreamhack rooting for 5-10 players primarily… a significant chunk of them don’t even qualify. We pick new players to root for to get back to a reasonable amount… and most of the time, they ain’t winning unless you’re VERY lucky.
Now compare this to how fandom works in larger team modes, say trios… you can literally root for 1-3 teams and focus on them, and be pretty happy throughout a tournament. Your fandom will actually payoff. In the long run, you can actually build connections with specific teams, the new players who come in and out. You don’t have to bandwagon every single tournament because chances are if you are rooting for a good team, they are going to do well.
Viewing Experience
I have said this a lot previously – and I’ll use grand finals numbers as an example… 100 individual entities is much more difficult to follow and understand than 25 (squads), 33 (trios) or even (50) duos. There is a reason why major sports leagues mostly don’t have more than 30-ish teams. It’s important that viewers don’t have to constantly re-learn the environment. Have something small enough to keep focus and attention on. It’s not that we can’t support large amounts of teams, but specifically within a game I think it’s important to keep that “team” number as small as possible (while still being watchable/playable).
Even as a significantly involved caster/analyst that over-prepares for literally every single grand final, I cannot tell you about every single player. I can do that for every team in a trios grand final. I absolutely cannot for a solo grand final, and trust me, I try. I really really try. Half of the time I can’t even use the information, and all that prep time was a waste, and half of the time recalling it in the moment is impossible anyways.
Because of this, there are always going to be more missed moments, where all the sudden you’re asking yourself… who the heck just took first? That’s just the nature of the mode. I specifically remember Breso at AO being that way…
I think that, yes, we can DEFINITELY improve the viewing experience to compensate for this, however as a base default – I think just generally… this simple fact of there being MORE people to track makes viewing harder.
It also turns people off of the stream when their favorite players have high chances of dying more frequently, which is the case in solos. If someone is watching a tournament because Benjyfishy, MrSavage and Mongraal are playing in it… it is highly likely that they ALL die before the endgame. OFTEN times without even seeing it on a broadcast, because there are multiple people dying at the same time. There are so many narratives and things that need to be focused on that are completely missed and overlooked simply because there are TOO MANY of them.
Also, good games in team modes actually… FEEL like they do. Take a relatively equal performance in both trios and solos… 8th place and 24th place. In most formats, equal points, and also equal placement (8x3players=24)… but the 8th place feels more significant. They also might end up coming at around the same time in the game… yet that 8th place feels more significant, because at the end of the day there’s only 8 more teams that need to die to win… whereas in solos, 25 is still a large number…
Competitive Integrity
Competitive integrity is impossible to uphold in solos. Teaming, colluding in all its various forms is way too easy to hide. Legally doing it in the open is even easier to justify.
The mode is so difficult on you mentally that it is now 100% expected that you will be in a discord call with OTHER PARTICIPANTS in the tournament, so much so expected that we think its ok to tell each other information within the same game, about your location or others.
This straight up just doesn’t really happen in larger team modes, and if it does it needs a lot more hiding, thought and planning, whereas in solos it’s easy to just… do…
Out of all of the teaming/collusion scandals that have happened, think about how many of them happened in solos compared to other team modes. I recall one serious one and that’s the slurpy storm surge incident. People point to Unknown’s squad splitting Slurpy with Kreo’s squad as an example… but even still, whether you consider that collusion or not, there are so many MORE instances of it in solos. Two compared to the… at this point, many DOZENS of confirmed teaming/collusion cases in solos.
This is a joke, and every time another case comes out we ALL suffer significantly. It’s almost getting to the point where we’ve run so much solos and had so many weird incidents that people just think it’s NORMAL in Fortnite. Sure, this might be on the individual bad actors, but at the same time it’s almost as if the MODE incentivizes it.
Teammates hold each other accountable, the more teammates the better at doing so, but obviously we have to strike a balance between what people want to play, what’s good to watch and what actually works.
Also, a note on splitting POIs. I think the entire community can agree that especially when it comes to agreements with, unspoken or not is bad whenever there is trust between multiple teams…. In solos everybody has done it. In duos, most people have done it. In trios/squads it comes down to very very few, and the effect it has on OTHERS is miniscule, because there’s no chance of implicit bias choosing who you fire upon almost ever… which is present HEAVILY in solos (“oh that’s dubs’ skin or path” – implicitly decides not to shoot).
Griefing and Early Game
In solos, it takes ONE person out of the 99 players to make one decision that impacts you. One person to decide to contest you after you have spent a full season conditioning a spot. That one person can be the difference between Mongraal playing well or not, between MrSavage playing well or not, between Tayson being champion, or not.
The crazy part is that things like this are not even MALICIOUS. In most cases, it’s just somebody trying to do something for themselves, and play for their goals in the tournament. However, there is just too big of a chance of ONE person affecting others compared to larger team modes. One person deciding to jump in your box, one person to decide that they need to storm fight you.
There ARE those malicious things that happen though, way more often in solos than in any other mode. Clix sniping unknown and getting him to react by LANDING on him for the rest of the invitational grand finals? Remember that?
Now keep that in mind when you think about the available drop spots on the map. The map is actually quite unsustainable in solos in the sense that there are just not enough viable drop spots. This was an issue in the chapter one map, and it certainly is still an issue in the chapter 2 map. When you extrapolate the drops to only 33 teams, that issue affects much FEWER teams, and early game gets much more interesting overall.
Teams start to stretch and split their drops which creates super interesting situations, strategy and tactics. Comparatively to solos, where you drop, fight or don’t fight, and go on your route. There are potentially 50 1v1 fights breaking out in a solo early game as well, impossible for a viewer to digest, compared to 16 potential 3v3 fights in a trios game. These are worst case numbers, but what is true is that:
- Contestation rate is higher in solos because of the required unique amount of drop spots. Certainly higher in grand finals, but I would assume that rate would be higher in earlier rounds as well.
- Already a much lower potential amount of fights, compounded with a lower contestation rate and you have a DIGESTIBLE early game. A predictable early game, something that people can UNDERSTAND and see the impacts of.
A good player who gets 6 extra people landing on him is going to die a good percentage of these attempts.
A good trio who gets 2 extra trios landing on them (same amount of people) are most likely going to win at a much higher rate.
It’s important that early games are interesting and not just constantly disappointing, which I feel like in solos the latter is much more frequent.
Roles, Clutches and Narratives
Set roles are possible in team modes, in solos its all on you. Some people might find that attractive, and to some extent it is. However, the reality is that not EVERYBODY can be Bugha, but they can be Chap or Highsky… and the same goes the other way right? Not everybody can have a Vivid brain, but they can have the speed of Clix. People are different, players are different… and I think it’s incredibly important to provide room for differentiation.
In solos, everybody has to be the same. Everybody has to be a mechanical beast who thinks at a million miles an hour. In trios, that’s just not the case, and it still leaves room for those guys to be the beasts that they are. MrSavage’s value doesn’t diminish because he’s on a trio, he still can do all of that and be a star player.
One of the major points about esports, and it rings especially true in Fortnite with the nature of open tournaments, is that it encourages PLAYING the game because you want to replicate what you see the best players doing. I think that is easier in larger team modes, because you can actually SEE IGLs winning. In solos, IGLs just simply don’t win. Support players simply don’t win.
Furthermore, clutches actually exist in team modes. The entire downed team rooting for you. Clix solo in endgame with Bizzle dead coaching him. In solos it’s just a completely different vibe, and clutches really only exist in shambles situations or from behind pop-off games. Those are cool, but they are also a lot more common. Clutches should be rare and impactful, in my opinion. Team modes help that, I think trios is a perfect balance, squads clutches were fun but definitely felt way too RARE (commandment solo wins), especially in early/mid game. Specifically you remember Zexrow’s 1v6 at retail row. That was actually a possibility… in squads not so much. In solos/duos, it’s so common I can’t callout any specific clutches.
Team narratives also are much more interesting moving away from duos, because it’s more than just ONE relationship, and these ROLES that are created become important. People LOVE to talk about their teams and who should be moved where. At the beginning of Fortnite, it was a huge draw to competitive fortnite, who would TSM’s squad be? Who are they trying out, etc. etc… It’s still a great discussion point, but we miss it a lot with such a focus on solos. That intrigue allows narratives to be spawned. Some of it might be negative, but a lot of it is positive and FUN to engage in.
Better Isolation from… Fortnite
There was a reason trios season was still looked upon fondly by everyone even though holistically it was easily the most difficult season to bear. Why? Because the Fortnite way was in full effect then, and thankfully we were playing Trios. I find that unfortunate because people now associate a terrible meta with Trios in a lot of cases, but in any case… More teammates gives you MUCH more protection against RANDOM elements that are in the game. I’ll use the example of snipers.
In solos, getting headshot sniped is the end of the run. That random element of someone 200m across the map has just ended an entire game.
In trios, you have your team not only to bring you back into the game, but also to share your economy with. You get to split the load. A rez, and a few shields split and you’re back in it. You have an extra slot to actually carry medkits, shield bubbles, have different weapon comps, etc.
There are so many examples of that, and overall it essentially just provides stability against “fortnitey” meta changes and just the RNG of the game itself.
Last example here would be to imagine if the infinity blade was thrown into winter royale 2018, but we were playing trios. Would it be as big of an issue? Were ballers as big of an issue in trios? Would planes have been as big of an issue?
I’ll also quickly state that yes, SOME things are MUCH MUCH more broken in team modes than in solos, like the catty launcher – but in general i’d say trios DAMPENS the effect of IMBALANCE DRASTICALLY by having a better sense of stability and more options to deal with it.
That’s not even mentioning the bugs that completely lose tournaments for players individually, but in team modes you can work through. Again, not saying Bugha losing a tournament due to glider bug won’t happen in team modes, BUT a bug’s impact is SIGNIFICANTLY lessened for every teammate you have extra.
Toxicity
Solos is the most toxic mode. Straight up. Already outlined some of it in the competitive integrity bits and that certainly adds fuel to the fire.
However, even without the “social aspect” of toxicity, which there is clearly a lot of with how ridiculous social media is LITERALLY EVERY TIME there is ANY solo tournaments (including cash cups), just think about you playing a solo tournament.
The ebbs and flow of your rage. How ridiculously easy it is to hate the game every time you get headshot sniped or storm fought by one random idiot.
No that shouldn’t be what we blame first, we should blame ourselves, but hey, that’s not how our minds work. I don’t agree at ALL with those people who say that solos is completely uncompetitive when looking at the top of a solos leaderboard, but I understand where they are coming from.
This to me is a recipe for disaster. There’s a reason why solo scrims and solo practice is notoriously the hardest to get going, it’s because very few people have the mental strength and wherewithal to handle the mode.
We continue to focus on solos and I guarantee the rate of top level players quitting will be higher. The impact is also higher, as full fan bases of single players are destroyed. We will continue to bring high amounts of terrible social media engagement, rather than the opposite side of the spectrum.
Now that’s not to say that all social media engagement will be positive, but it certainly hurts HARD when the best solos players in the world are constantly resorting to twitter to rage at the game every time they die in grand finals.
There’s a big reason why all major leagues fine/punish players for speaking out against refs, or whatever, and that’s because it hurts EVERYONE. I DON’T WANT THAT TO BE A THING, AT ALL…. but it feels like by playing solos we’re just purposefully enraging everybody for no reason. Everytime Bizzle tweets Epic Games hate is bad for us all, even Bizzle, and we should all be trying our best to stop when coming from a place of rage especially… but man does solos bring it out of us (and other stuff too…)
A note on why we need a MAIN MODE
For the long term, a main mode is crucial. It is impossible to keep people’s interest when we are bouncing around a million different modes. Neither the squad FNCS or trio FNCS were accessible by most because there was the assumption that they would never be permanent. If we knew that they were coming and going to be here more often, most people would make more of an effort to play them.
From a viewing perspective they certainly weren’t accessible, and not just because there was no broadcast or promotion or hype at all… but it was impossible to keep up with all the team changes season to season. What’s the point of learning ANYTHING about the teams if the next time the team modes come around they will look completely different, or they won’t even exist at all since we don’t have consistency.
We need that consistency. We need that back to back season where there is actually relatability between the seasons. I’m sorry, but Zayt/Saf winning duos means nothing in solos, they are COMPLETELY different games. If I reference prior FNCS results in a different mode, it’s because there’s literally nothing else to talk about.
It’s like in the current valorant scene still referencing counterstrike results. They mean nothing, but there’s nothing else to talk about.
Consistency for viewers, for players, is SO important in the long run. It feels like every time we switch modes we hit the reset button on our scene and competitive ecosystem.
You won’t build up to the player base of solos in ANY other mode EVER unless you give it the same amount of care and attention, multiple seasons in a row.
We need a MAIN competitive focus, and that focus should be trios for all of the above reasons.
….
I wrote all that and forgot to mention how impossible it is to have any sort of long term consistency in 3rd party tournaments without having a main mode.
I don’t know how many TOs are like, let’s run duos… and then duo arena is removed, etc… etc… Having one main mode would allow people to PLAN AHEAD, with confidence. Right now 3rd parties from the community level all the way up to the “working with epic” level struggle so hard to run anything BUT solos because of how volatile the schedule is.
A few note on the difficulties of larger team modes and how to fix them
“It’s Impossible to Find Teammates”
Add arena fill.
Seriously. Not having an arena fill is the equivalent of Riot making their leagues and esport 5v5 but forcing everyone to play the game with 4 other teammates ALWAYS with no solo queue. Matchmaking is the basis of every esport, and right now we really don’t have a solid matchmaking option for anything OTHER than solos UNLESS you already have a team.
Improve the tools available to run competitive fortnite by 3rd parties.
Third party leagues/tournaments are the BEST place always to find SERIOUS teams, and right now, there is no reason why you would play those leagues in Fortnite, because the tools suck. You just straight up have to work WAY too hard to play in them or put them on.
Keep one main mode.
Literally swapping modes every time makes it impossible to keep friend groups together of teammates… because we are breaking them up or splitting them…. Why would I want to subject myself to that every season? It’s harsh. Additionally, making a team to play a tournament in takes planning… Thankfully Season 4 trios has solved that, but in the past, there was very little notice in how to form teams. I think a lot of what the announcement at the end of FNCS invitational did, and how we had trios cash cups this season solved A LOT of this issue thankfully, since we all knew trios is coming.
“Solos is so exciting to watch”
I straight up disagree with this, I’d say more often than not, solo tournaments are boring. The reason we feel that solos is exciting is because the main focus has always been solos. The only tournament that has ever focused on a team mode OVER solos has been ESL Katowice…
The World Cup focused on Solos way more than duos, and while the tournament FELT more exciting, the duo tournament was EASILY the better and more exciting tournament. I implore you to go back and watch it and realize, especially given the information you have now, how much of a crazy close fight it was.
Up to this day, comparing how solos tournaments are treated versus others… there still has not been a team mode that has gotten that level of promotion, hype lead up, broadcast focus and just straight up love that solos get EVERY time.
“Solos gets more players”
This is true, however, shortsighted again. I remind you that I am NOT asking for the removal of solos entirely.
A solos tournament will by definition always get more players, it is just simply ALWAYS more accessible because all you need is yourself.
However, I don’t believe that major solo tournaments ATTRACT more players, and they certainly don’t attract more viewers. I don’t see any reason why that would actually be true at face value. You can use the stats of WC solos vs WC duos and whatever you want, but the reality is as I stated above… is that the treatment and hype/promotion of WC solos was drastically higher.
I think the goals of competitive fortnite are to drive playerbase up and viewership up which in turn drives revenue up. I think solos actually encourages more people to quit than any other mode, including pros – both by watching and playing.
The accessibility of solos is great, but don’t use that as a way to hold the greatness of team modes down. Instead, let’s increase the accessibility of team modes. Of course solos has more players when the only way to play competitive team modes EVER is by having other people. Again, like CSGO making it so you could only play the game only if you have 4 other friends and never allow solo queue. Even worse… trying to make 5v5 CSGO esports a thing when the only way to play the game outside of esports, was 1v1.
“Changing modes keeps it fresh”
Keeping it fresh might feel real Fortnite… but it’s no way to harness a competitive scene. I find no enjoyment of switching modes every season. Absolutely none. It just makes things hectic, weird and toxic. I have not yet seen a good reason as to why things should be kept fresh (WITH THE GAMEMODES), all I see it doing is hurting and reducing growth overall.
We can’t have super teams while keeping it fresh… we can’t have fandom and so many valuable things. We can’t have real history… and for what? Why do we sacrifice these things?
We can’t have the Astralis era, or the NIP era in CSGO… the G2 or TSM era in LoL. The Jaedong/Flash eras from starcraft, if we continuously swap up the modes… and especially a focus on solos would make that hard. Though I’d say, even sticking to a mode would help that… all the focus we’ve had on solos has allowed that in a region like NAW w/ Arkhram… but for how long?
My Ideal Tournament Ecosystem
In my view. Solo tournaments are an important part of the ecosystem, they are fun, every once in a while. They are really easy to play quickly and whenever you want. I can hop on and play a solo cash cup, I love that. That’s literally one of the few places I still get to compete when I have the time every once in a while.
I believe that one off invitationals featuring solos, solo cash cups, and solo show matches are great places for it to fit. I love the idea of finding out who is the best player BY THEMSELVES – but to me that doesn’t make them the best Fortnite player, or even the most complete players.
- I want more lower stakes solo competition.
- I want less high stakes solo competition.
- I want a lot of high stakes team competition.
I think this would be best, long term, for the game.
There is more to competitive Fortnite than solos. Major seasons should be ONE team mode that is focused on. Major events should be that same mode.
Great article Balla, loved reading it and most of the points are valid.
My question is If fortnite went down the route of having a franchised league with trios or squads do you think it could solve most of these problems and also would it be successful?
100% it could. Don’t think it should go down the route of a “franchised league” as Fortnite’s big selling point is accessibility and I think they should continue to push that.
Amazing stuff balla
i love the opinions and the idea
Loved this!!! You did a great job writing this, and I agree with everything you said!! We should do more summer skirmish/pax stuff, and make them invitationals.
Entirely agree, as a person who usually loves watching tournaments, these past few solo ones have just felt boring and i force myself to watch, having solos in the spotlight for so long completely made it harder to watch in the long run. i feel as though the main mode should be duo or trios with a few sprinkled in squad and solo grand finals i hope epic listens to this
I like the in depth take as always. Agree they need to back a main mode that stays. I really would like to see a more traditional season situation vs the current long tournament scenario. It just baffles me that they go through all this effort of the qualifiers and heats to determine a great set lobby… and you only get to see it for 6 games on 1 day. 2-3 months of RNG hell separating the wheat from the chaff, then 6 games and back to square 1. Even in trios the RNG factor is so high that a single set of 6 games really doesn’t settle anything. It is like if the PGA went through the process of players earning tour cards for EVERY tournament. Madness.
While I do agree if you had to pick one trio’s is the way to go, I have a hard time envisioning EPIC giving up the last player standing “could be you” narrative. Maybe they just need to nail it down at solo and trio, like singles and doubles in tennis?
Also… one of the issues you raised regarding the madness of 90+ story lines and not enough drops to keep collusion from happening. I think this could potentially be addressed easily by just capping the lobby lower. 33 teams in trio’s works… how about 33 being max cap for competitive solo lobbies? Also mostly resolves storm surge (for solos at least) I think.
Any thoughts on ceding the inevitability of splitting drops and adopting some of the scrim server rules and just formalizing stuff like loot/farm only for first 2-3 circles? No idea how that works with the mythic POIs and AI though… but I would very much like to see no AI in competitive.
I think the reset has more to do with tournament structure than anything, but yeah, consistency would help there.
I don’t see how solos is the only place where the narrative of “could be you” works… very well works in all modes, maybe slightly less for sure… However I would almost argue that some type of people are just completely negated from winning a solo tournament… IGLs for example, people who take the game a bit more strategically… completely in-elligble to win a solo tournament.
Reducing # of players in lobbies helps in all modes, yes. IMO.
Amazing post balla, you mentioned franchises in other games such as league and I’m curious if that would ever be a thing in fortnite. I’ve always wanted an org competition at a lan, and I feel like something like that would help fortnite grow as an esport in general.
No, I don’t think so.
I don’t think Epic wants org competition, nor do I think it’s totally NECESSARY. I think the current structure we have now is OK if there was some concessions on epics side to help orgs at least exist a bit more successfully.
I hope Epic reads this. Great analysis of the future of the scene and how it should be run!
The only time I ülay Fortnite is with my Friend. And the ONLY Gamemode is Arena.
I fricking logged into another account on my phone that we could trio arena together. (With the removal of fn mobile this option is gone too)
I need a way to grind and enjoy the same time. I wouldnt have last more that three games in every solo gamemode may it be arena or cash cups. This game is so rng that better players can be beaten by worse players. IN WHICH SPORT IS THAT THE CASE? Right in none. May it be Chess or LoL the better one wins. And thats not the case in Fn. On top of that I could NEVER last more that 10mins of watching fncs. I rather watched rocket league esports. Because I at least know SOME players. When I watched Fncs ALL PEOPLE WERE RANDOMS THAT I NEVER HEARD OF BEFORE. And the be honest: Whats the point of watching then? For real the players werent even good. Noone had stand out mechnics and the zone and rng had more impact on the game than you with your skill.
Balla speaking the str8 faxxxxxxxxxxx
Balla speaking the str8 faxxxxxx
I agree fn comp needs some changes. For me as a fan the most frustrating thing to watch is solo”s. The last two fncs where the winner basically colluded with his duo or trio to survive early game and the first rotation. I dont blame the players( they are less likely to get griefed) but I dont respect the winner as much if they land at the same poi as their duo. For me this trend is what down graded my viewers experience. The point of making solos not as important is where I 100% agree on. Sorry for the possible bad english .p
Great article Balla, I agree with everything!!
But you really think that Epic wants this for Fortnite?
Like I think that Epic wants more a casual than a competitive game, a great example could be how most of the times they don’t hear the competitive community and also how they change the game, like meta, competitive playability, etc
Greets from Argentina
Wow balla!
I have never written an article that was so long with only facts. I fully agree with everything you said.
Especially the piece where you was talking about IGL’s almost never winning solos. Im an IGL by myself and i find it really difficult to deal with aggressive players and that makes me place low in solos altough my gamesense is pretty good but yeah nothing about me anymore.
Thank you for this great article arten, great work!!
Great post Balls!
Competitively spoken, teammodes are the way to go.
As a viewer though, I like solo & duo way more then trio or squads.
For example: I like duo fights the most. It’s more tactics based than a 1v1 (positioning), and you have more clutches then 1v1. On the other hand, I find a 3v3 very chaotic. If I am viewing a 3v3, you can’t spectate the whole fight because sometimes there are 3 separate 1v1s going. It also involves a lot of just spamming instead of flashy 1v1 Mongral classics etc.
It is also more common to see a solo clutch. For example benjys recent clutch in the FNCS (I believe it was the semifinals or something) or the clutch from Mongral getting 15 Elims. Although a 1v3 of 1v6 is more impressive, you just dont see it very often. If a trio has high ground endgame, 99% of the time they will win if the have catty. In solos catty will most likely win too but you say a lot of times that lowground can clutch up.
I agree with what you say about tactics. Dropping, rotating, fighting and roleplaying involves way more tactics. The problem is that as a regular you won’t see / understand it a lot of the times when you watch a tournament. Only the people VOD reviewing are going to see a lot of little details.
In the end, just looking at what I like to see as a viewer, I like duo the most.
Hey balla, great post – lovely to have someone in the community express ideas articulately. It definitely seems as though the state of competitive solos is pretty rough right now; player discontent, the public’s viewing experience and how the games play out generally are all quite problematic.
I recently wrote down some ideas on competitive solos, highlighting some problems surrounding randomness and incentivisation which might be at the heart of many of the issues. It touches on a lot of the points you make (fandom, griefing, player consistency) and suggests viable changes that could be made to improve solos as a competitive game mode.
If you were interested at all I’d be happy to tidy it up and send it across however is convenient for you – no worries if not, appreciate your post regardless, thanks for the interesting read!
I agree about solos but I think duos is way more fun to play than trios and I think squads should get removed altogether since it becomes very hard to split drops espescially if the whole edge of the map gets wiped away like half of this season.
Also duo is way less caotic and easier to keep track of teams since they dont split as much. Keeping the same mode is key because after you biuld chemistry in duos its very annoying having to split or teach the new commer how you play etc and then to have him leave or struggle due to the missing chemistry.
Hope epic reads ur article.
P.s. saw u yesterday in the arab cup
A nice post and several valuable ideas. I slept on it and had come up with an idea, that could potentially give a compromise between the current system and your ideas. Feel free to prove that it wouldn’t be that good though.
Next to the duo/trio main FNCS mode, whichever is decided on being the “main” competitive mode, why don’t give solos one “big moment” every season. That is, we have the FNCS running throughout the whole season with qualifiers, heats and finals. Next to that we have the solo dailys/bi-dailys/regulars (cash cups). But instead of the non-consequential daily system, award Solo points, similar to the seasonal series points. People who have finished in top 3 in any daily cup, or placed in the top 1000/3000 of the Solo Series Points in the season gets invited to the seasonal solo cup on the last weekend of the season (after the FNCS is already done). It would be a simple one weekend competition between the best, first day the number is reduced to 100, on Sunday custom matches between the best of the best solo players.
It would still give everyone the potential “solo moments”, it would give the players the “best solo player in the season” feeling (even if that is a ridiculous title in itself), but more importantly, it could give a chance to root for players: We would have a full season to see who is the best in the current meta, we can start rooting for or against the w-key kings who dominate dailys, and see whether they hold up in 100 player custom lobbies too. Or can the consistent players, who have been in the top for years now but might only get through consistency points take home the victory in the more familiar stacked lobbies?
The only downside I see (but you might point out several more) is that I’m not sure how can we fit duos/squads into this schedule, when the main point is creating a stable FNCS mode (e.g. trios), but if I remember correctly, that wasn’t included in the post either.
I think the Solo dailys would not take away from the FNCS itself, it would be something to just keep an eye out, get warmed up to the idea of the “big finale” and once the FNCS is done, there would be that 1-2 week where people get hyped into the solo one, where people go through the whole season and post on reddit who has been the most consistent, who had just one pop-off and was mediocre otherwise. We would have the data, it was already in the back of our minds during the season, and now there is nothing else to occupy us, so we can get hyped.
Fantastic article balla; I hope one day epic would read this and consider everything mentioned! 👍
Totally agree with everything in this post, especially the part about solos and the amount of pros that have quit because they could not place in them anymore. So many pros that quit comp, like poach, cloakzy, myth, tfue, etc, would still probably play the game had a mode like trios been a main mode. Even Ninja, who doesn’t play comp, squad did well in FNCS and would probably be playing comp if it wasn’t just focused on solos. I think Chap tho is a main example of what could have went right. He didn’t get stuck on his solo perfomance, in fact he doesn’t care about solos at all, and has exceeded in trios. Also I think there are regional differences as well. , in my opinion, EU seems to care less about solos than NA so that might correlate to why less EU pros have quit the game than top NA pros, but I may be wrong. I think EU in general seems to care less about drama and sensationalism than other regions so there mentality isn’t drawn to the rng solo spectacles like random headshot snipes.
Forgot to add to my last point that EU players seem to do more consistent in Team game modes as well. Alot more EU players placing top 10 in WC Duos then Solos
I play a lot of fn especially solos more than anything else, check my fn tracker, cobweb v.s. (not self promo i dont gain anything if u check my stats, I just want people to see that even people who play the game a lot and can win dont like the game mode I have like 200 solo wins nothing crazy but i have a decent idea of the game.)
And in my experience a bad solo runs day can cause depression. You’ll try as hard as you can be in creative for hours, and it wont make a difference at times. Because things like you got sniped in the head, or someone throws 18 STINKS at your box bc thats the meta we lived in,( No lie the stink grenades happened in a solo tourney *multiple times* I cared about and I almost quit the game permanently.) I can only imagine how people who struggle to win feel when playing this mode. After all 20 solo wins puts u in the top 1% or something, whereas there are way more duo and squad wins needed to get to that position.
just hope epic listens to you bc everything you said made sense and would make the game overrall a lot more enjoyable. gg balla