Fortnite player RepulseGod banned following FNCS cheating incident

Retired professional Fortnite player Morgan ‘RepulseGod’ Bamford has been banned from Epic’s official Fortnite competitions after he was caught cheating during the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) in 2023.

The announcement on the official Fortnite Competitive X (formerly Twitter) account from February 17th further revealed that any prize money unfairly earned by RepulseGod was forfeited and donated to charity.

Australian player RepulseGod competed in Fortnite tournaments between 2019 and 2022, winning several iterations of Trio and Duo Cups in the Oceania region. In 2020, his squad placed second at the FNCS Invitational – Grand Finals: Oceania.

The FNCS is the most prestigious competition within Fortnite’s esports ecosystem, with majors in multiple regions and culminating in the annual Global Championship. The first major of this year’s FNCS season recently concluded across all of the circuit’s regions, providing the first qualifications for the 2025 Global Championship in Lyon, France.

During the seventh season in 2023, RepulseGod officially competed in the FNCS Major 3 of their region alongside their duo, Jace. The two eventually won the Grand Finals, securing a spot in the $4m (~£3.2m) Global Championship in October 2023. However, the duo was disqualified just one day before the Championship kick-off.

It had been confirmed that RepulseGod had lent his Fortnite account to another player and well-known cheater, Forbes, to claim the regional trophy and qualify for the international Championship.

Fortnite developer Epic successfully took legal action against RepulseGod’s deceptive behaviour, resulting in a life-long ban as well as the return of their prize money more than one year later.

Epic’s announcement also linked to an official statement from RepulseGodm published on their YouTube channel. In the video, the player admits to sharing their account with a cheater and apologises for their actions.

He said: “Cheating in tournaments ruins the fun for the players who earned their spot in tournaments and I apologise to the Fortnite community for my actions. I won’t ever cheat in Fortnite again.”

Epic’s reaction to the cheating incident was met with an overall positive response from the Fortnite community and notable esports professionals. The decision to make RepulseGod share a video after getting banned was seen as a good thing for the esports scene.

Esports reporter Rod ‘Slasher’ Breslau commented via X: “If every game developer sued and publicly shamed their cheaters we could get this industry cleaned up in six months.”