The Story of Faze Jarvis

On November 3rd, 2019, seventeen-year-old competitive Fortnite player FaZe Jarvis posted a video to his YouTube channel, “Jarvis”, titled: “I’ve Been Banned from Fortnite (I’m Sorry).” In the video, Jarvis, whose real name is Jarvis Kaye, reveals that he’s been banned for life from Fortnite Battle Royale for using the cheat/hack commonly known as an “aimbot” within public matches. In layman's terms, an aimbot is a bit of software frequently used within shooter games that improves a player’s aim to the extent that they cannot miss a shot, and are often capable of seemingly impossible shots. Throughout the video, Jarvis discusses his use of the cheat in public matches and in the playground mode for no other reason than producing content. He makes sure to mention that, throughout his six-month-long status as part of the famous FaZe clan, he has never used cheats of any kind during competitions. As the video goes on, Jarvis breaks into tears, saying that he’d not considered the consequences of using the software, and that, though he respects Epic Games’ authority, the lifetime ban caught him by great surprise. The video, which has since amassed over 10.5 million views, took the coveted number one spot on YouTube’s trending page, and garnered attention from fellow streamers, media outlets, and the YouTube community alike.

Over the course of the week since the video’s release, there’s been a great deal of chatter about the harshness of the ban, and whether or not it was an appropriate response on Epic’s part. The internet has been split in two by Jarvis’s actions. Some people, such as the popular Fortnite streamers Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Turner “Tfue” Tenney, and Herschel Beahm (also known as “Dr.DisRespect”) have all voiced their opposition to Epic’s permaban on stream, suggesting that Epic shorten Jarvis’s ban down to something more reasonable like six months or a year. Others, meanwhile, have countered that argument, saying that the rules which Epic have laid out for the game are clear: no hacking, modification, or additional software can be used to enhance the game for any purposes. Epic has yet to reverse it’s ban on Kaye, and the potential for that to happen in the future looks bleak. In the past, Epic has been adamant on its anti-hacking, anti-modding stance, though there have been some questionable instances where players who have cheated during competitive play were allowed to continue playing the game after a short ban (If you’re interested to learn more, look up “Damion “XXiF Cook Fortnite competitive cheating”). On November 10th, Jarvis posted a follow-up video to his YouTube channel entitled: “The Future of FaZe Jarvis,” which has topped out at number seventeen on trending. This time, Jarvis has adopted a new tone for the video, one which seems more mature; more composed. In the video, Kaye gives a short recount of his experience with video games, reflects on the events which led to his ban, and discusses his plans to leave the FaZe clan mansion in Los Angeles to go back and live with his family, and take a short, much-needed reprieve from YouTube.

“These past years have been a huge learning process, having to grow up so fast and having to try and act like an adult at such a young age. Like, I know how important it is to set a good example for everyone that watches my videos, and I’ve just been taking a lot of time to reflect on everything. One thing I’ve been thinking about the most is how to move forward. I want to let you all know that you’re going to make mistakes in life but the most important thing is how you learn from those mistakes and become a better person.” -Jarvis Kaye

That brings us to today, November 12th, Jarvis’s 18th birthday. As of now, it seems that Jarvis is going through with his break. With no end in sight for his ban from Fortnite, he’ll have to shift to other content on YouTube if he has any hopes of maintaining the following that he’s accrued over his time as a content creator. I feel sorry for him, really, to be so young and be thrust into the national spotlight after having his main source of wealth stripped of him...it’s got to be humiliating, that’s not to say that Jarvis was right or wrong in what he’s done, but it seems as though taking a break from it all - from YouTube, and Fortnite - might be the way to go.