Epic Removes Fortnite Chapter 7 Accolades Trailer After Explicit Username Appears On Screen

Epic Games has quietly removed a promotional accolades trailer for Fortnite Chapter 7 after viewers noticed that a sexually explicit term appeared uncensored in a featured social media username. The trailer, released over the weekend, was intended to showcase positive reactions to the new chapter using censored quotes pulled from X and other platforms. Instead, it became a brief but widely discussed example of how moderation gaps can surface even in tightly controlled marketing campaigns.

The video followed a familiar Fortnite promotional format. It displayed black-and-white footage of characters alongside short, punchy quotes attributed to users, with profanity masked by asterisks. Among the visible lines were “**** the Dark Voyager,” attributed to “the bus driver,” and “Like a ******* fever dream,” credited to the X account FN Posting. Both fit the trailer’s deliberately edgy tone while remaining within Fortnite’s age-rating boundaries.

The issue appeared roughly 24 seconds into the video. A quote reading “The best ******* game ever man” was shown on screen, again with the profanity censored. The attribution beneath it, however, was not. The username shown was “JonesyFrotting,” a handle that includes a sexual term unfamiliar to many viewers but explicit in meaning. Unlike the quoted text, the username appeared without any masking.

Once the trailer circulated, viewers quickly flagged the oversight. The term embedded in the username began trending in Fortnite-related discussions, prompting many to look it up. Within a short window, Epic pulled the trailer from its official channels. The company has not issued a formal statement explaining the removal, but the timing closely followed the spike in attention around the username.

TheGamer and PC Gamer both reported on the incident, noting that the trailer had likely passed through multiple internal review stages before publication. On Reddit, users focused less on outrage and more on disbelief that the term had gone unnoticed.

“Someone read that, then someone was sent it, then someone edited it, someone approved it, and then someone posted it,” one Reddit user wrote.

“There was probably more people than that involved and no one caught this.”

Another reply added:

“Very funny to me that the entire Epic Games team doesn’t know what frotting is.”

The owner of the X account referenced in the trailer also reacted publicly after the video was taken down, acknowledging the situation and expressing surprise that the handle had appeared uncensored.

“Am I genuinely gonna be the reason why someone’s gonna be losing their job today,” the user wrote in a post following the trailer’s deletion.— JonesyFrotting, via X

The trailer itself had reportedly been released on a Sunday, which may have contributed to the delayed response. Several reports suggest the oversight was not intentional, but rather the result of focusing moderation efforts on quoted language while overlooking usernames. The word in question is not commonly used in mainstream discourse, which may explain how it passed through automated or manual checks designed to flag more familiar explicit terms.

Epic has previously faced similar issues when promotional content intersected with unexpected meanings. Earlier this year, the company temporarily removed and modified an emote tied to the Peacemaker collaboration after external context gave the animation an unintended interpretation. In that case, Epic cited a desire to avoid confusion rather than wrongdoing.

Chapter 7 accolades trailer has not been reuploaded in an edited form. It remains unclear whether Epic plans to restore it with the username censored or replaced, or if the company will abandon the format entirely for this chapter’s marketing. Copies of the original video continue to circulate online, preserved by reposts and screen recordings.

The incident has had no visible impact on Fortnite’s in-game content rollout. Chapter 7 continues to receive updates, including new collaborations and mechanics, and Epic’s promotional focus has already shifted to upcoming additions rather than the pulled trailer.

Read also about the Fortnite leak shared by known leaker HypeX, which suggests Epic may be preparing one of its largest collaborations yet. According to the leak, Epic has reported plans to integrate South Park into core seasonal systems, rather than limiting it to cosmetic items.