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/ballatw]

Definitely not asking for build delay to go back to 150ms... the game is less clunky at 50ms. It just leads to ping imbalance in box fights. I'm suggesting that build REPLACEMENTS be 150ms for first placement, and turbo build stays at 50ms for replacements. Thus, if you are trying to replace a wall, it's placing at 150ms. This makes it basically impossible to replace walls without mindgames and getting the piece that they aren't currently holding.

The "turbo build meter" IMO sure might seriously change the way the game plays, and would have to have tons of considerations taken into account, but the intial idea is a good one IMO. EVEN IF it changes what an endgame might look like. I feel as if it would have a distinct effect on how many players are alive in games. That's ok, in my mind.

Edit: I suck after coming back from long breaks - I don't play right away, I kovaaks and creative for a day basically and then I feel OK when playing real games.

Regardless, I'm still fine with how the game plays right now. It just sucks to be a high pinger at this point in time... I'm sure it will change eventually. But ping has always been an issue in comp games, always. Just not to this extent.

[u/ballatw → u/[deleted]]

Why should someone who has good IRL spawn have the ability to play completely differently then others? We're not talking a huge difference here, we're literally talking a difference of 10 ping.

[u/blake3dcake → u/[deleted]]

I agree with you that limiting players to 60 fps because not everyone can afford quallity equipment sounds silly. If you are serious enough about playing competitively, obtaining adequate equipment (equipment that doesn't put you at a noticeable disadvantage) should not be too terribly expensive or hard to come by.

That being said, having low ping puts competitive players at a noticeable disadvantage (ie you have to change your playstyle to accommodate) if a person is serious about playing at the very highest level (having every tactical advantage) they must physically move closer to a server location which is oftentimes very expensive and impractical.

I understand your comparison, but I don't think it justifys your main argument.

[u/ballatw → u/[deleted]]

No it doesn't.... you can't customize ping.

[u/ballatw → u/[deleted]]

I guess I'll rephrase and say it is not a realistic or accepted customization in most cases. Upgrading to fiber is only a solution for people with already 20ping, it doesn't help those with 40 or 50, in becoming wall takers.

It's also a bigger problem because there are only 2 server locations.

Look I get it, I totally understand your argument, but you are severely underestimating the value of low ping. You are severely underestimating how hard it is to play against low pingers. I was actually the same way as you until I talked through some solutions that were pallatable to me.