Fortnite players who make use of the Middle East server may experience problems from today as Epic Games moves things around behind the scenes.

The company recently announced that one of its networking options would be terminated and users on the server may find themselves with issues including high ping.

“Please be aware that any solution will take time to be implemented. Therefore, we cannot provide an estimated solution date at this time. If you experience high ping after May 9, we recommend switching to another server or setting your server selection to Auto as a temporary workaround,” the Epic Games writes.

While it may just be one server the change could impact many players from other parts of the world. It’s not uncommon, for example, for those in South Africa to jump on servers in the Middle East for a better experience depending on the game and the available servers.

It’s worth mentioning here how players can go about changing their matchmaking region / sever. An official guide is available here which shows that the available regions are: North America East, North America West, Europe, Oceania, Brazil, Asia and the affected Middle East.

The “auto” option should connect players to the closest server which offers the lowest ping.

Epic Games leaves us with a short question and answer section about the situation:

What Fortnite game modes will be affected?
All Fortnite game modes will be affected, including Battle Royale/Zero Build, Creative games, and Save the World.

Who exactly is impacted?
It is hard to determine the specific impact on particular players, as it depends on several factors such as ISP and region. However, we do know that players will only be impacted if they connect to the Middle East server.

What about Fortnite competitive events?
Arena and all tournaments — except for FNCS — will be affected. Players connecting to the Middle East server can expect the same impact in competitive matches as in other non-competitive matches.