Red Bull Contested content sponsored by AGON by AOC
Fresh from winning the FNCS 2023 Major 2: Europe Grand Finals, Harry ‘Veno’ Pearson is ready to take the UK’s first major Fortnite LAN by storm and join his fellow UK Red Bull Contested competitors in Edinburgh.
However, Veno also identifies with the concerns held by other competitors regarding the start of the new Fortnite season as the competition starts. We discuss the last-minute season drop, Fortnite developers’ relationships with professional players, and whether we will see him accompany Wolfiez in a kilt in our Veno AGON ASKS Red Bull Contested interview.
So, you have had some fantastic results over the past year, especially in Duos with Queasy – you guys have done some great stuff! How does that place you coming into Red Bull Contested? Do you feel quite confident, or is it quite different from playing those Duo events?
I always try and be humble, because you don’t know how the event’s going to go. Every time I go into an event, I’m normally predicted to come first. It’s the same type of thing with this one.
Especially with the new season coming out on the day, honestly, this could either be a really good event for me or a really bad event for me. It could go either way! But I’m confident, and I think it’s going to go well.
It’s funny you mention the new season – I was speaking to Nebs about it, and I know it is on a lot of players’ minds. How do you think the new season is going to affect different players? Will it be a levelling factor, or give an advantage to certain players?
It will be both. It will level the playing field a decent amount, but if a broken item comes out and only some players are getting it… for example, I might not get it, and it could change my event drastically. I wouldn’t have enough time to prep either, because, like I said, it’s on the day. Honestly, there’s a degree of luck.
For example, a player like Archie could wake up tomorrow and everything could be good, and I could be in the gutters.
Another thing that has come up quite a lot is the communication between the Fortnite developers and the players right now in the competitive scene. Do you think it is a mistake to put the new season right before a large LAN event?
I used to go, ‘have faith, have faith in the system, have faith’, you know? Since I’ve been playing Fortnite for a long time and had communication with those developers and the people that run it, and knowing their roles, I have zero hope for anything that they put forward.
Having met the people that run Fortnite and knowing how much power they have – in the competitive scene, they don’t have that much power. Remember, they cater more towards casuals than competitive, but I think the two actually go hand in hand. If you look at the player numbers, they’re very similar, and I’m guessing that some of their pay actually comes through competitive play as well – it’s very sporadic. Even with this, I don’t have much hope for them, sadly.
I shouldn’t say much, but I’ve had a couple of arguments with them, let’s put it that way. I used to be in the Discord, but I actually got banned for being too toxic towards them.
“With Fortnite, the only way you find out if a bug is being fixed is if you wake up on the day and suddenly it’s fixed.”
Veno
Seeing those games like CSGO and Valorant being run so well, and the public actually having access to developers and being able to put words towards them – with Fortnite, you literally didn’t know who was making the game. ‘OH, it’s Epic Games’. With other games, you can actually reach out to the developers by name and say, ‘This is a bug’. With Fortnite, the only way you find out if a bug is being fixed is if you wake up on the day and suddenly it’s fixed.
There are numerous things in Fortnite where I can probably name a bug today that hasn’t been fixed since day one, because, to put it simply, there isn’t any bug-reporting system, or they simply don’t care. Remember – they want to cater to casuals.
I think the way the company makes most of their money is they literally have a specific guy who goes out and reaches out to companies and says, ‘let’s put your items in the game’… [indiscernible irritation]… it’s frustrating.
I actually think they should have two split games for casuals and competitive players, because we don’t want your Spidermans, you know, characters to do with Marvel, and just bringing random things in for the season.
Moving on from there, Veno, tell me a little more about Red Bull Contested and how your experience has been so far with the format.
The format is an interesting one, definitely. Four points per kill, and I can’t remember if it’s the last two games or the last half of games that is eight points per kill. It benefits me the best because I’m really good at eliminating people.
To be honest, I’m happy with how it is, and I’m curious about how stacked it’s going to be. It will change the way people play. The thing is, it changes people’s mindsets. If they’re doing bad after the first three games, they will still try and clutch up the last three. If you’re playing online and you fail in the first three, you don’t care anymore. You just start running around and doing whatever you want. It’s going to be different at the end, and it will change how people play.
“This format will change how people play. It changes people’s mindsets. If they’re doing bad after the first three games, they will still try and clutch up the last three. If you’re playing online and you fail in the first three, you don’t care anymore.”
Veno
So, do you think it’s going to make for a more aggressive lobby towards the end with people trying to get those extra points?
I don’t think people will try and risk it too much. It will be more aggressive for the people lower down. People in first, second, third, up to the top 15 – one game changes everything, especially because of the double points. If they win the last game, even with six or seven kills, someone in the top 20 can go to the top 5. So it will be more of a hiding game for the people who were already doing good.
That’s going to be really interesting to watch then!
Aside from obviously, winning, what are your goals for Red Bull Contested, when the competition kicks off?
At every one of these LAN events, I try to have a good time. Normally when I’m at home, I’m playing 24/7.
With goals for this, every season, I come top of the stats. I want to possibly include that and keep that going for this event and be at the top of the stats again – I guess that’s one of my goals aside from winning.
If I get in the top five, I’m a happy bunny.
Especially with the new season, getting some good stats in right at the start is going to be good. Best of luck with that! Just to end, my lovely colleague/editor been including some Scottish questions at the end to stay nice and topical on where you guys are….
When I got there [to Edinburgh] I said to Wolfiez, ‘Do you want to go and buy a kilt with me?’ and maybe you’ll see Veno and Wolfiez rocking one tomorrow.
I’m going to look out for that now – look out for Veno in a kilt! Have you tried haggis or a deep-fried Mars bar? The opinions about deep-fried Mars bars seem to be that it looks way too greasy.
I’m not a chocolate man, I don’t like chocolate. Yesterday – I didn’t have haggis but Pinq had haggis. They thought it was actually pretty good. I Googled what haggis was and I decided to keep it simple and boring!
Fair enough! I think people who haven’t had it before go ‘I’d rather not’ most of the time – it’s a bit strange.
Last of all, when I spoke to Nebs, he fully said (he comes from Newcastle) he prefers Edinburgh over where he lives. Are you the same?
I moved 97% of my life – just moved, moved, moved, because of my dad’s work. Edinburgh is a nice place though! There are lots of people around – very nice people – and like you said earlier (off camera) there are really lovely long walks. That’s all I want to do after this. Go for a walk, see places. I don’t like sightseeing, but I like a bit of fresh air. I spend most of the time living in my own polluted air, so it’s good to be out.
I highly recommend going to the park, it’s quite near the Royal Mile. If you go to the park there, there’s a walk up this big hill and the views are gorgeous. It actually feels fresh – you can’t hear all the noise. So I highly recommend that you do that, hopefully off the back of a good run!
Thanks, yeah!
Thank you Veno!
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Hannah is a writer specialising in the esports, gaming, and technology sectors. Working for companies such as Lionscreed Esports, Esports Insider, and SideQuest Hub she has developed a love for wider esports and Apex Legends, although it may never surpass her drive to passionately beat her friends in every game of Mariokart. You may have seen her at various esports and gaming events, including ESI London, EGX, Discover: Esports and many League of Legends watch parties.
