Epic Games is updating its zero-tolerance policy against cheaters in Fortnite, trying a more graduated approach with progressive punishments.

Beginning in April, cheaters will be given a one-year matchmaking ban on their first offense instead of a lifetime ban—unless they really screwed up.

Epic Games doesn't like cheaters. This has been a fact of life for a while now - those who cheat in Fortnite get Epic's lawyers real mad, and they've not been shy about going beyond what the law demands.

“Cheating is never a winning strat,” the competitive Fortnite X account posted on February 17. “We took legal action against a player who shared their account to unfairly qualify for FNCS. Now they’re banned from Fortnite tournaments forever and their undeserved prize money was donated to charity.”

He’d previously been playing in Fortnite tournaments for years, winning thousands of dollars in prize money. Bamford was one of a few professional players who accused Epic Games in 2020 of not paying out prize money from a DreamHack event;

Fortnite is making big changes to its ban policies, and while it's giving some penalised players a second chance, it's not all good news for battle royale sinners — here's why