Fortnite's 'Illegal Restart' Explained: The new rule players need to know

Fortnite Competitive has always been, true to the name, a hotly competitive realm. When millions of dollars, accolades, or even just special skins are on the line, it turns out people and companies get pretty serious about rules. Epic Games has released a statement clarifying a rule that could significantly impact how players join tournaments and other competitions.

Dubbed an "illegal restart," the rule looks to stamp out players who enter into competitions multiple times to get better chances of winning.

Illegal restart explained

In December 2020, Epic added rule 3.7.4 to its official competition rules. The rule officially limits how many times a player can enter into a competition. Here's the official text:

"Players may only have one (1) entry (using one (1) Epic account) into the Event for a given session. Players are expressly prohibited from having additional Event entries using additional or secondary Epic account(s), and/or participating from more than one (1) region."

In case there's any lingering confusion, Epic posted an additional example of its official rule text from the recent Pelé cup.

"Players may only have one (1) entry (using one (1) Epic account) into the Event for a given session. Players are expressly prohibited from having additional Event entries using additional or secondary Epic account(s)."

If for any reason you've broken that rule recently, don't worry about getting banned just yet. In a rare instance of humility, Epic has stated the discrepancy is basically on them.

"It is evident that players were not aware of the change," Epic tweeted. "Only warnings will be sent to players who were not rule compliant and it is on us for not making this change more clear."

A number of Fortnite players took to Twitter in recent days to express dismay at warning messages from Epic, some for seemingly older events. One Twitter user has even received a temporary ban message for an alleged illegal restart.

Point being, make sure you're obeying the rules. Epic is notoriously tough on competitive rule enforcement, going so far as to ban popular YouTuber FaZe Jarvis for allegedly using an aimbot cheat while playing Fortnite's solo battle royale mode.

You can check out details on Fortnite Competitive's 2021 schedule and prize pool, which totals more than $20 million.