Ninja Thinks Fortnite Streamers Caught Cheating Deserve Special Treatment

Popular streamer Ninja has provided his thoughts on FaZe Jarvis Khattri's permanent Fortnite ban, saying the punishment was too harsh for the pro gamer who was caught using aimbot cheats.

Tyler "Ninja" Blevins said Jarvis is a "stupid kid making a stupid decision" but felt that a permanent ban is "just silly." According to Ninja, content creators and regular players should be handled differently by companies seeking to dish out punishment.

"There's a difference between a content creator who has millions of subscribers, hundreds of thousands of followers, who gets banned from literally what makes him money and some kid who is a piece of s*** who has absolutely zero following, has zero money that comes from gaming, and hacks," Ninja said. "You ban that kid, nothing happens to him. Nothing happens. 'Oh no, he can't cheat anymore.' You ban Jarvis... It's different. The stakes are different, it should be handled a little bit differently.

"Just look at the situation. It needs to be handled different because it's different. A content creator cheating who's entire life is about the game he's playing and some random who has no YouTube channel, no Twitter account--he doesn't even care, he just cheats. He hacks to hack. You ban one, you ruin his life. You ban the other, he makes another account and keeps cheating. It's different. It has to be handled differently."

Ninja admits that his initial reaction was wrong later in the Mixer livestream but does believe the punishment for juveniles and an adult should be different, just as they are in the legal system.

"A kid cheating at a video game is a little bit different than a grown adult cheating at a video game. An adult should be able to experience and think things over and [reflect on] consequences because they've experienced life longer and they realize that everything in life has consequences," Ninja said. "As a child, they need to learn these things. Should the bans be the exact same? Technically not, because when someone usually commits murder past the age of 18 [or] 19 they're considered an adult and that's why they get tried as an adult. If you are under the age of 18 there's a reason [why] you're not tried as an adult right away because you're not mentally all there ... [The punishment] should be the same for all kids under the age of 18."

While he thinks the ban should "100 percent be there" and that Jarvis was "truly clueless" for not knowing the consequences, Ninja states that popular games like Fortnite will be affected if content creators are handed severe punishments and permabans. "Without your content creators as well, though, it has a negative impact on your game," Ninja said.

You can listen to Ninja's full thoughts in the stream below, where he starts discussing FaZe Jarvis at a little past the two-hour mark. More thoughts on Jarvis occur around the 2:43:00- and the 3:02:00-mark.