A Fortnite Pro Just Queued FNCS With A Fake Teammate

Imagine queuing into a major international esports tournament with a fake teammate. Fortnite pro shxrk just experienced that dilemma, and the community is chatting about the situation. Here’s everything to know.

Fortnite Pro shxrk Queues With A Fake Teammate

Fortnite duo Oltean “shxrk” Ștefan and Tin “t3eny” Popovic have competed together throughout 2026. The pair notably won two Reload Elite Series 2026 Qualifiers, also taking part in two FNCS Major events. Both are signed to Aurora Gaming, a well-known esports org that typically competes in EMEA circuits.

This week, the pair were scheduled to queue up in some Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) matches. Things were looking up, since they had shown strong synergy in their recent tournaments. However, an unexpected plot twist caught fans off guard: shxrk had accidentally locked in to the event with an imposter, who was pretending to be his teammate t3eny.

It’s important to note that this fake t3eny had pulled out all the stops to imitate the original. This person had climbed to the game’s highest division, the same one t3eny is in. They also reportedly sent out the match invite to shxrk first, who accepted it. The fake t3eny’s profile had his Aurora Gaming tag and his home country, Slovenia’s, colors.

Shortly after the incident occurred, t3eny confirmed it. The pro wrote on his personal X.com account, “ggs shark queued fncs with a fake t3eny lol.”

This has a lot of implications. Most importantly, it means shxrk would have been locked into playing with the imposter throughout the duration of his FNCS run, unless Epic Games did something about it. Recognizing this, shxrk immediately posted, “Can someone please help me?”

Luckily, an employee was on the scene. Within 20 minutes, the team was able to restore shxrk’s duo to his rightful place. shxrk posted a thank-you message, identifying Julia Dager as the Epic Games member who fixed the issue and encouraging his fans to “show love” to her.

Community Reactions

Some players are wondering what the fake t3eny’s motivations were. The community is uncertain whether this is a harmless prank or a genuine attempt to sabotage the duo from progressing further in the FNCS season. The fake teammate also seemed decently competent at the game, so their identity remains mysterious.

Even though Epic Games resolved shxrk’s dilemma relatively quickly, it also still has the Fortnite community asking how the imposter got into FNCS in the first place. “How is this even possible?” XSET Twizz wrote.

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Another community icon, Clix, chimed in to offer his thoughts on the situation. Clix questioned, “How dumb do you have to be to queue up with a fake duo… are you not in the same call? Like, are you not in the same f—ing call when you click the Ready Up button?”

Clix also applauded how quickly the fake t3eny was switched out, saying, “Wait, Epic is on it. That’s the fastest they’ve ever fixed something, right?”

Stay tuned for more Fortnite esports and in-game news.