Fortnite player allegedly cheated to win $6k in a competitive tournament - now he owes Epic $175k and is banned from the game "forever"

Epic is celebrating a legal win over an alleged Fortnite cheater who now owes the company $175,000 after ignoring a lawsuit filed late last year. That money is going straight to charity, but it represents one heck of a chunk of change compared with the $6k the player apparently won by cheating in a competitive tournament.

Back in December 2024, Epic said on Twitter that it "filed a lawsuit against a player who cheated in our tournaments. This player used cheating software and hardware and tried to avoid getting caught by using multiple accounts."

Today, the company says "the Judge ruled in our favor after the cheater ignored our lawsuit. The player is required to pay $175,000 and we’ll donate what we collect to charity. They are also banned from playing Fortnite forever."

While Epic did not provide any more details about the legal action on social media, IGN has a bit more info from the lawsuit itself. Sebastian Araujo is named as the cheater, with Epic alleging that the player had participated in 839 tournaments over the course of four months, winning "at least $6,850" in cash prizes.

"While the Court notes the amount sought by Plaintiff exceedingly surpasses Defendant's alleged actual gain, $6,850," court documents say, "Defendant took significant measures to conceal the true scope of his cheating activities by creating multiple fake accounts and employing a hardware spoofer to circumvent detections."

Last year, Epic made clear that it was "ramping up legal action" against cheaters, and those efforts paid off in a separate settlement against another alleged cheater earlier this year. As our friends at PC Gamer reported at the time, the player was forced to donate the winnings to charity, banned from tournaments for life, forced to issue a public apology, and all but sent to his room without dinner.

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