Interview with Dean 'Frag' Ciantar - A Semi-Professional Fortnite Player

It's safe to say that Fortnite has been one of the most popular games for a while now, refusing to slow down in terms of enthusiasm. So much so, that it's growing steadily into an esports title with prize pools that rival those of Dota 2. To learn more about the title's current situation, Gamers.com.mt took up the topic with Project Eversio's Dean frag Ciantar, a semi-professional Fortnite player. 

1.) To kick off the interview, please introduce yourself to the readers in terms of private life, social life and of course, esports and your relationship with it. 

I'm a 20 year old Fortnite player, studying Software Develtopment and currently competing under Project Eversio both for the Local and International Team. Current local champion winning all 3 LANs held for Fortnite so far and a big amount of small events hosted on the side by both Gamers.com.mt and Quickfire. I have been in the esports scene for about 6 years starting out with League of Legends and COD 4 Promod although my first ever LAN I attended was back in September 2017 which was the Malta Cyber Series #3.

2.) Dean finds himself on the Project Eversio Fortnite line-up on which he engages in international and national competition. Describe the process of joining Project Eversio and finding yourself on their current Fortnite roster.

We first started out as 4 friends who started the game together back in January slightly before the game blew up as League of Legends was getting boring and stale. I remember we loved the game so much we decided to start playing it as our main game. We spent about 3 months playing squads and practicing until we eventually participated in the Nova Series #2 under the organization Team Paradox. We won the event fairly easily and got in contacts with Project Eversio which we ended up joining as our new and current organization. Ever since then we've been very dominant in each event we participate in and haven't dropped a single loss regarding any LANs and tournaments, winning the Malta Cyber Series #4 and the Nova Series #3 as our last big achievements.

3.) As I mentioned, Project Eversio is doing their utmost to participate in international competition. What has international competition been like up to this point? What is your stance on the international Fortnite competition at this early point in time? 

So far I'm the only player from the local team that has been involved in the international scene and I must say it's a tough one. Tournaments and Leagues happen very often and missing one or failing to qualify might put your reputation down the drain. We placed pretty well in the majority of European tournaments we participated in surpassing and playing with many professional organisations such as Team Secret, Team Atlantis, MisfitsGG, Epsilon and Team Method just to name a few. The international scene is very promising, just a few weeks ago over $1.5 million were won at a 3 day LAN hosted by Epic Games themselves at PAX West. We just hope we can qualify and hopefully attend an international LAN around the winter time and show what we are all about.

4.) Focusing our gaze on the local scene, Eversio have been quite dominant locally, especially in the weekly tournaments we’ve been organizing. What are your comments regarding the level of competition locally? What is required for further growth to occur for Maltese Fortnite?

As I already stated, we'be been very dominant in the local scene just through the number of hours of practice we all do and how consistent we are with our mechanics and game sense. I guess other local teams just haven't grasped the game as well as we have. I've also noticed that the majority of local teams are still very young with roster changes happening left and right. This, in my opinion, is the biggest culprit in having an unsuccessful team, always stick to 4 players and change players when it's absolutely necessary not because of grudges, jealousy, etc. The biggest thing needed right now for the local scene is by far custom lobbies for the game as those aren't even out yet. Who knows, maybe once we have proper lobbies a team might step up and actually win or perform, it's a battle royale game after all so some RNG is involved.

5.) I’ve got a curious little question. The genre of Battle Royale has only recently gained the interest of professional esports through titles such as PUBG and Fortnite, trailing behind MOBAs and FPS especially in this aspect. Why is this? Is it due to the nature of the genre or the quality of the titles? 

The Battle Royale genre is a fairly new and very fragile genre in my opinion. Any slight mistake from the developers and the game completely dies as we've already seen with games like H1Z1. With regards to proper E-sports, Fortnite right now is just under Dota 2 with prize money and winnings to be won as Epic Games have already announced a $100 million prize pool for the 2018/19 season. That should keep players interested in the game for a while at least. As for PUBG, I don't really follow the scene as I think the game is insanely boring and has no counter-play with insanely long and slow-paced matches for my taste, respect for anyone that actually has enough patience with the game to play it at a pro level. I think the battle royale genre is pacing up to be very promising as we've already seen it beating titles such as League of Legends on twitch when tournaments are on so overall, really hopeful for Fortnite's future.

6.) Yet, regardless of my fifth questions, the genre is beginning to invade all titles with even Call of Duty and Battlefield conforming to this apparent need in their incoming titles. In your opinion, why has Battle Royale become so popular over the last two years?

The genre right now is a huge cash grab for big companies such as Activision and EA so no doubt that everyone is trying to jump on the hype train right now. The reason for the popularity surge in my opinion, is due to casuals and beginners starting out to play the game. When you're just starting out you play and get to top 10 or top 5, your heart starts racing thinking that you might win a lobby with 100/150 players and then you die. It destroys you but you go in again trying to win and once you do, the feeling is unreal for casuals and even pro players sometimes. No other game genre provides the same satisfaction in my opinion and I think that's why the battle royale scene gained such popularity. Regarding all companies trying to do BR's as a cash grab, I'm pretty sure most of them will die out or just fail miserably and maybe 1-2 games will survive for more than a year.

7.) Fortnite still has a long way to go to match other esports. In your eyes, describe the future of Fortnite as a competitive title. What does it need to thrive and what could potentially harm this growth?

If the game keeps on going in this direction with the developers listening to the community and providing what it wants, I don't really see anything harming the game apart from some patches that might be disastrous on launch. In any e-sport, if there's a huge amount of money invested into a game, the game will succeed. The only threat I might see coming Fortnite's way is it getting stale but with all the content patches coming out I don't really see this happening. I mean, I'm pretty close to 1000 wins myself and still haven't gotten tired of it so props to Epic Games for making an insanely fun game.

8.) As a Fortnite player and teammate, what are your goals for the remainder of the year as an individual competitor and as a member of Project Eversio? 

It's been a really successful year for me and my teammates. As for the local team, all I'm hoping for is that we keep on dominating the local scene and winning every event with also closing out the year with another LAN victory. As for the international team, the biggest goal right now is participating in a proper international LAN. Just being on the main stage at an invitational is motivation enough for me to keep on grinding and competing.

9.) To conclude, we’ll ask for advice on behalf of attempting competitors. What does it take to succeed in such a young esport such as Fortnite? What have you learnt from your own experience that wasn’t taught to you? 

The biggest advice I can give is never to give up even though people put you down either saying you're trash or they say the game is trash. Keep grinding and you'll eventually make it. The hardest thing I've probably learnt is that being team captain is really stressful, basically managing the team, scouting, practising, schedules, etc etc. Letting players go is also the most difficult decision to make although it's for the better of the team.

Some fantastic replies out of Dean "frag" Ciantar here, offering incredible insight into local and international Fortnite; a great interview! One thing I will add, in the threat department, is the fact that Black Ops 4's rendition of battle royale is prospering incredibly at the moment - perhaps pulling some of the player base of Fortnite? We'll have to see. 

We wish Dean the best for the upcoming year of competition!