Fortnite player tries to save trapped opponent, accidentally kills him with a golf cart

Chappadoodle is in a bit of a pickle. Shortly after starting a match of Fortnite, he got into it with another player. During the resulting build fight, his opponent shot his platforms out from under him, causing him to plummet not to his death, but off the side of the map. With no resources left to build his way back up, Chappadoodle is utterly trapped with nothing to do but wait for his inevitable demise. Luckily, he's within the next circle, but time's still not on his side. In desperation, he starts firing into the air hoping to grab the attention of a passing good samaritan. 

That's when YouTuber Muselk comes along. Seeing Chappadoodle stranded at the bottom of the canyon, the Storm Eye fast approaching, Muselk springs into action. Burning through his wood and brick reserves, he builds a makeshift staircase down to the trapped player. To Chappadoodle, it must look like a stairway to heaven. Finally, help has come!

More Fortnite

What's new with the latest Fortnite season
The best Fortnite creative codes
The optimal Fortnite settings
Our favorite Fortnite skins
The best Fortnite toys

But then, disaster: the staircase can't reach. Chappadoodle's below the build limit, so no matter how hard he tries or how many materials he uses, Muselk's staircase will never reach him. The Storm Eye's only getting closer. What now? 

Frantically searching for a way to save the stuck Chappadoodle, Muselk remembers the curiously parked golf cart he saw at the canyon's edge. Perhaps the player he killed before noticing Chappadoodle (oops) was trying to rescue him using the golf cart, the roof of which functions as a bounce pad? Yes! That could bridge the gap between the canyon floor and the end of the staircase! His hope rekindled, Muselk carefully edges the golf cart over to the edge…

...but not carefully enough. Like Chappadoodle before him, Muselk goes careening over the map's edge. His rescue vehicle has become his coffin. Meanwhile, Chappadoodle can only watch in horror as Muselk falls to his death. His chance at rescue is slipping through his fingers like wet sand, and he's powerless to stop it. Or is he?

Summoning every ounce of energy left in him, Chappadoodle positions himself between the tumbling golf cart and the cold, cruel ocean behind him. He means to stop the golf cart with his very flesh. If Muselk dies, they both die, and if nothing else, he can at least save another player with the last of his life. But just as the golf cart finally reaches the bottom of the canyon, it bounces off the corner of the ledge and the ground—right into Chappadoodle. Now it's Muselk's turn to helplessly watch as his partner in this whole mess falls to his death. He doesn't have to watch for long: Chappadoodle is consumed by the ocean mere seconds later. 

"Oh no!" Muselk wails, "We killed Chappadoodle!" 

The true misery of Chappadoodle's demise is that, as Muselk learns moments afterward, the golf cart's bouncy roof actually would have saved him. Forlorn, Muselk ascends his own makeshift staircase, no-doubt ruminating on the time he spent with Chappadoodle. The laughs they shared, the close calls. 

Chappadoodle recounted his side of the incident on Reddit. "The rescue was underway and the newest candidate for my rescue was descending towards me," he says. "Moment later a golf cart is rapidly plummeting towards me, when it dawns upon me, it's possible this golf cart rolls off the ledge into the ocean, killing my Savior and dooming any chance of rescue in the process. Without hesitation I put myself in between the golf cart and the ocean acting as a buffer I prevent any possibility of the golf cart sliding off the map. Unfortunately I forgot about the knock back I was receive on impact, moments from rescue i'm knocked into the ocean, instantly eliminating me."

Chappadoodle concludes his post by saying: "Muselk for attempting to save me, thank you." 

For his part, Muselk had this to say on Twitter:

Tragic.  

Austin Wood
Staff writer, GamesRadar

Austin freelanced for PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree, and has been a full-time writer at PC Gamer's sister publication GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize that his position as a staff writer is just a cover-up for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a focus on news, the occasional feature, and as much Genshin Impact as he can get away with.