An interview with local Fortnite player 'woke'

Meet Imaad “woke” Lorgart, a 15-year-old competitive Fortnite player.

He and his teammate Scara have been on an absolute tear in the local Fortnite scene, winning more than 10 tournaments this year, including a first place finish in the cross-continent $2,000 (nearly R30,000) NSML tournament at the end of November.

woke has certainly cemented his place as one of the heaviest hitters in the competitive SA Fortnite scene. 

He took time to answer questions from us, and here’s what the young maestro had to say about his extraordinary competitive year, and the new Fortnite season that has arrived on our shores.

The recent run

KC: You and your teammate Scara had a three tournament stretch of victories, including the first place finish for the $2,000 NSML tournament. What do you think separated you and your partner from the rest of the field to clinch victories in those events?

woke: Mainly talking about the NSML tournament, what I think separated us from everyone else was our chemistry and how well we played as a duo throughout the tournament. There wasn't any "solo" or individual playing. That can work too, but we played as a duo the whole time, working together. Another factor was we managed to get good loot from our landing spot, Stark Industries, so we consistently had average to good loot. Our play style also factored how we positioned ourselves and were able to hold height 3/5 games, resulting in three wins out of five games.

KC: We find ourselves heading into a  new season in Fortnite, and I know off the bat you’re already heartbroken because the pump shotgun has been removed. Why are you so sad it's gone?

woke: I hope to still produce big results this coming year. The way Fortnite is going , it's moving in a direction away from the shotgun meta, which I dislike. I hope to adapt well to the new meta and get as good as I possibly can.

Fortnite Champion Series

KC: Epic games has announced this FNCS season is going to be played in trios, and you and Scara have announced that Rejects from Energy Esports will be your third member. How do you think the change from duos to trios changes the competitive landscape, and how are you feeling going from a dynamic duo to a trio with Rejects rounding off the team?

woke: I think it's good Epic chose one game mode to stick to. It's healthy for the competitive scene. However, I would've preferred duos rather than trios as the main game mode. Nevertheless, during season 3, Scara and I teamed up with Rejects and won most of the trio tournaments back then. We split up for personal reasons, but I think we have managed to fix those problems and are back together. I'm quite confident as we always worked very well in-game. We suited each other as a trio and managed to place well. Going from duos to trios, we can take advantage of Scara and I working well together, as well as Rejects having duoed with Scara a while back and play in a 2's and 1's setup a lot. We need to get back to how we used to play with improvements and I think we could do well as a trio.

KC: You’ve shown a great amount of talent (and hard work!) and stacked up your trophy case in the 2020 Fortnite year. Can we hope to continue seeing big things from you? What are your plans and ambitions going forward in the competitive Fortnite world?

woke: For now I play Fortnite mostly for fun, as something to do in my spare time, because I like competing and find the game competitively a lot of fun. If we ever get SA servers, I would like to take the game seriously and take myself as far as I can in the game.

Points of interest

KC: In the most recent Elite Pro Series PC finals, you and your teammate Scara found yourselves contesting the Stark Industries landing zone, where fellow competitors Kareem Khan and his teammate Mitz Chimp were also landing. The end result was a deadlock where neither you nor Kareem co-placed in that tournament. Can you elaborate why y neither of your teams could get the advantage when landing at the same point of interest (POI) as fellow high level competitors?

woke: In the EPS Finals, at Stark, it wasn't only my duo and Kareem's duo. There were multiple other teams landing at Stark and it was a very contested POI. Usually in Fortnite, if you want to win, you need to be uncontested, or contested by players on a lot lower tier than you. You can definitely win while being contested by top tier players, but off-spawn in Fortnite is very RNG-based, and especially at Stark Industries it's 50/50. We expected  it was a low chance of either of Scara and I or Kareem and Chimp placing, but we thought we might as well try, as we had been landing there the whole season. The multiple other teams landing at the spot made the contest more difficult for all of us.

KC: Is there anything you’d like to add as this interview comes to a close?

woke: Thank you for having me in this interview.

Thank you so much for taking time to do this interview.

If you delightful readers enjoyed what woke had to say, I encourage you to follow him on Twitter and subscribe to his YouTube channel.

This article was brought to you by Esports Central.