When professional Fortnite player and streamer, H1ghSky1, joined FaZe Clan he was announced as the game’s first 13-year-old pro and one of Fortnite’s youngest pro players. However, H1ghSky1 has admitted that he is not old enough to stream on Twitch or compete in Epic’s official tournaments. As a result H1ghSky1 won’t be able to collect the money he’s won through Epic’s tournaments according to the Fortnite developer.
The controversy around H1ghSky1’s age started as a part of the lawsuit brought against FaZe Clan by its then pro-player Turner “Tfue” Tenney. According to Tenney’s lawsuit, FaZe knowingly hired an underage player and compelled the player and his parents to lie about his age in order to compete in Epic’s tournaments and stream on Twitch. With very few young players on the FaZe roster, it didn’t take long for fans to guess that H1ghSky1 was the subject of the accusation.
A few weeks after Tenney’s lawsuit was filed, H1ghSky1’s Twitch channel was banned. While Twitch doesn’t comment on banned accounts, the site does have a policy that streamers be at least 13 years of age, which is likely where the violation came from. A few days after his Twitch ban H1ghSky1 resurfaced with a stream on his YouTube channel where he cleared up some of his fans’ most pressing questions.
“My Twitch account was suspended for me being underage. And yes, I’m 12,” H1ghSky1 said during his stream. “I only lied to fulfill my dream of being a streamer. It’s been my dream for a long time, and I worked for a year and half for it, and I’m sorry I lied about it.”
For now, H1ghSky1 says he’ll continue streaming on YouTube. It’s worth noting that YouTube allows streams from children as long as they have a parent’s permission. As such, H1ghSky1’s mom sat next to him throughout almost all of his two and half hour long stream on Wednesday night.
While H1ghSky1’s streams will continue, it appears his competitive career will have to be put on hold. Epic has specific rules that require players competing in the World Cup to be at least 13 years of age.
When Polygon reached out to Epic for comment on H1ghSky1’s age, an Epic spokesperson provided this response: “Following an Epic investigation and player admission to falsifying age information, we have disqualified a Fortnite competitive player from the events that the player had participated in, including any prize distributions. We are updating Fortnite World Cup leaderboards accordingly.”
This means that H1ghSky1 will no longer be able to participate in the Fortnite World Cup. He would also need to return any prize money he’s won in previous Epic Tournaments — the Blackheart Cup and the Fortnite Winter Royale 2018 — however according to Epic he wasn’t been paid for these tournaments.
While competition in Epic’s Fortnite events won’t be an option for H1ghSky1, at least until he turns 13, the competitive scene won’t be entirely closed for him. In fact, he’s competing in week 2 KeemStar’s Friday Fortnite tournament. He’s also still wearing FaZe Clan gear in his streams and using FaZe branding on his streaming overlays, so it’s unclear how his age will effect his contract with the team.