As it stands now, sometimes aim assist feels too strong, so strong it looks like cheating other times it won’t be strong enough, and it might feel like controller players don’t stand a chance against players using different inputs.īut perhaps more importantly, while aim assist has a central role in the discourse about competitive integrity in esports, it’s only the most visible problem of a professional scene that hasn’t yet agreed upon the methods or the degree to which game developers and tournament organizers should go in their efforts to achieve parity between players. But while the notion that no player should have an unfair advantage over others might be simple enough in basketball or tennis, where strict rules govern the materials and dimensions of equipment and the court, efforts to guarantee a level playing field in games has proven to be a much thornier problem.Ī perfectly-balanced aim assist - some genius calibration that puts controller players on equal footing with their mouse and keyboard peers, without undue advantage on either side - may not exist. Prize pools in shooters like “Fortnite” are worth millions of dollars, and many pros who play on mouse and keyboard have become more comfortable characterizing aim assist as a form of cheating.

The aim assist debate isn’t new to esports, but the stakes have certainly increased. Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, the player who famously won $3 million at last year’s “Fortnite” World Cup, tweeted game footage that showed sF Roller’s shots were uncannily accurate, snapping toward his opponent despite a hampered line of sight.

To them, it was highly unlikely that controller players could have hit the shots they did without the help of aim assist. Roller’s victory, aided by aim assist, set off a powder keg.Īfter May’s tournament, “Fortnite” pros and commentators heaped insults on players who use controllers.

It is added to compensate for the fact that aiming with a thumbstick is more difficult than with a mouse, a far more accurate tool. When a virtually unknown, 14-year-old “Fortnite” competitor playing under the name sF Roller won a solo “Fortnite” Championship Series in May, earning $25,000 and shocking his mother, he had an important announcement to tweet: “thank you aim assist.”Īim assist is a feature enabled for players who use controllers - as opposed to a mouse and a keyboard - that helps guide the crosshairs toward opponents automatically.

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