By far the word I’ve used the most over the past few dumb years is “grift.” It just keeps popping up as folks try to scam each other more in more in increasingly dumb and elaborate ways. The thing about grifters is they need to associate themselves, however illegitimately, with something actually good and cool and appealing. And one of the biggest coolest and most appealing things right now to a bunch of kids is Fortnite.

 

That why so many families unfortunately fell for Fortnite Live, a real grift of a failed gaming event in Norwich, England many folks compared to the hellish Fyre Festival you may have seen a documentary or two about.

 

But while Fyre Fest rightfully suckered a bunch of insufferable Instagram influencers out of money they already had too much of anyway, it’s much less funny to see British kids suffer just because they like flossing in a battle royale game. That why we won’t shed too many tears for Exciting Events, the folks behind Fortnite Live, as Epic Games sues them.

 

How bad was Fortnite Live? After paying to get in, kids then had to wait in long lines and pay again to play Fortnite, a free-to-play game, on a handful of PCs. Beyond playing the game in the saddest way possible you could also climb a sad small mountain, take some sad small archery lessons, ride some sad small go-karts, eat some sad food and crawl through a sad small tunnel made from an overturned trailer. And there was basically no Fortnite branding at all since Exciting Events didn’t actually have official licensing, a detail almost as tough to spot as the refund link on the event’s now-deleted Facebook page.

 

That last part is why Epic is pursuing legal action. This is the worst case scenario of people using your #brand without permission, they screw up and damage public perception. Exciting Events maintains Fortnite Live wasn’t so bad and even wanted to do it again. But because of the lawsuit the company will now “cease all trading activities immediately.”

 

As Fortnite continues being the biggest thing in the world, the grifts will surely keep coming. For more on Fortnite read about the legal troubles Epic is facing for ripping off famous dance moves and remember how the Infinity Blade absolutely broke the game.