Travis Scott loses a Fortnite emote following Astroworld tragedies

This story about consequences, boiled down, in 1:35 minutes.

What's the fuss?

Fortnite, the extremely popular battle royale game, has removed an emote related to a certain rapper after his music festival led to the deaths of 8 people. This likely won't be the extent of it.

The situation

The megastar rapper Travis Scott recently held his annual music festival, Astroworld, in Houston's NRG Park for around 50,000 fans. 

• During the first day of the event, a massive crowd surged to the front of the stage which led to the deaths of 8 people (some minors) as they were crushed by other people.
• 25 more people were transported to the hospital as Scott reportedly continued the show, despite chants to stop.

The event, officially labelled as a "mass casualty", has led to a tidal wave of repercussions - including in the video game he is most prominent in.

• The developer behind Fortnite has removed one of Travis' dance emotes from being purchasable in the game's daily digital item store.
• Although the consensus is that the removal was in response to the Astroworld tragedy, no official comment on the reasoning has been made at the time of writing.

Boiling it down

Travis Scott and Fortnite have quite the history, as both pioneered video game concerts.

• The rapper hosted Fortnite's first interactive digital concert, which has since expanded in scope and incorporating other artists.
• Because of this, Fortnite has a lot of digital memorabilia for players to purchase (such as emotes and skins) dedicated to Travis - all which may now under threat of being removed.

Fortnite is extremely popular not just for its gameplay, but for incorporating real-life people into the game.

• Players can dress their digital avatars in "skins" to resemble celebrities such as LeBron James and Ariana Grande.
• Although this option is a huge draw for potential players, it also serves as a potentially huge liability if these resembled individuals get into controversies of their own.

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