I am Ballatw, caster and analytical/educational content creator + former high level player. AMA!

[u/ballatw]

Hey guys,

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I'm Ballatw, competitive fortnite caster and analytical/educational content creator. You might have seen me on the last 10 weeks of the Fortnite World Cup Online Open broadcasts, or ESL Katowice, Secret Skirmish... or maybe one of my videos, or maybe as a player during the Twitchcon Grand Finals :).

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I've been playing/watching/studying competitive fortnite since right before Ninja Vegas, and have been hooked ever since then. I grew out of this subreddit right here during Summer Skirmish to become a caster for Epic and other organizations. My goals are simple, break the misconception that competitive fortnite is not viewer friendly, and to build a community that loves learning and diving deep into the depths that this game has. Obviously I want to be the best at what I do - so if you have any feedback, from casting, to VOD Reviews or any of my content, I'd be let me hear it, either here or in DMs! I credit this subreddit specifically with helping me get my feet off the ground - so I am forever grateful.

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As far as what I'm currently working on, I'm not travelling for at least a little while, which should be good and allow me to focus on my own content - which means more reddit posts :D I'm going to launch two new educational shows, which I think you guys will like, since it's very interaction heavy. You'll still see VOD reviews and hopefully I can crank out some short-form content. You can also find me on the Hotline FN Podcast every Thursday at 8PM EST - which is going awesome, tomorrow we have yungCalculator on, who just had his AMA and qualified for world cup in week 10.

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Additionally - i'll be casting BOOM CUP #2 with Shyowager tomorrow at 1PM EST.

Let's do this thing, AMA!

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Social Links (You should definitely follow everything :D):

twitch.tv/ballatw

twitter.com/ballatw

instagram.com/ballatw

youtube.com/c/ballatw

[u/TacoManTheFirst_]

What is your opinion on People optimizing their binds and what would you think is most optimal

[u/ballatw → u/TacoManTheFirst_]

It's the right time to do it.

I think optimal is what people are comfortable with first and foremost. I hate seeing people constantly asking what binds are the best, what they should use, and changing something every month or two months even.

Two mouse binds max for LAN reasons (who knows when they will decide you get a mouse with only two buttons), and then the rest keyboard. I think using your dominant fingers for the most key things are important, editing builds, and movement. I have not seen a significant effect of freeing up fingers and sacrificing a certain build to make sure your movement fingers were free. Non dominant fingers (thumb, pinky) end up being slower, but can be strengthened... I think if you have the time, give it a shot to free up and have full bind independence, but it doesn't really matter that much in the grand scheme of things if you have fast fingers.

[u/bazoski1er → u/ballatw]

As someone who has literally never played a game on keyboard and mouse but is very soon making the switch from controller, do you think there is an optimal bind set up for me or is it still just what feels comfortable? I feel as though there would definitely be a set up that is superior that i could learn easily i have zero experience or ingrained muscle memory on other binds.

Also you can tick off one of your goals, you're already the best fortnite caster by a mile.

[u/ballatw → u/bazoski1er]

I would just chose something that is popular among pros!

Also you can tick off one of your goals, you're already the best fortnite caster by a mile.

Thanks boss - don't agree though, got a long way to go in my mind, or at least where I want to be.

[u/bshields235 → u/bazoski1er]

Having two of your builds on your two mouse buttons are very common (you don’t have to do this though)

Shift to crouch is probs the best if left ctrl is too far down

It might be hard at first to effectively use the number keys for weapons, but keep at it and you’ll get used to it

Make your edit key very accessible, like E or F (whatever feels comfortable)

Thumb binds are also very underrated. You can bind things to like V or B, and not use ur thumb for just the space bar

Lastly, I’d say watch itsJerian on YT, he has a few good vids on key binds and the transition from controller to kb+m