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Major Fortnite changes will no longer arrive before big tournaments

By Brittany Roston/

Remember Fortnite's ill-fated sword and its appearance right before a big tournament? Fans do, and they're still salty about it. It quickly became apparent that the Infinity Blade was overpowered when players acquired it and proceeded to completely decimate the competition, resulting in high kill counts and little chance of surviving for everyone who didn't have the sword. Epic removed the sword following heavy criticism, and now it is back with a change that will prevent this sort of thing from happening in the future.

Changes in Fortnite are an important way to keep the game fresh for players who may otherwise grow tired of the repetitive battle royale matches. Some of these changes are small, but many are fairly big, including the addition of new weapons and vehicles.

These additions may have a big impact on the way a player approaches situations in the game, as well as ways they may need to adjust their game play to account for new weapons. Of course, there's also the potential that a new addition could have too big of an effect on the game, such as the Infinity Blade.

The worst time to figure out that there is a balance issue is during a tournament with thousands of people watching. That's what happened back in December when the sword brought chaos to the game's tournament with a $1m prize pool.

In a brief update today, Epic said that it will make sure to leave a "reasonable" time frame between a big update and the next big tournament, giving players a chance to get used to the new items or other major changes. This time frame won't be the same each update, though, instead ranging from "a few days to a week," according to the company.

This new change will be go into effect starting with the Australian Open tournament, though Epic says it will continue to leave a window between big changes and major events throughout the year.

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