This year the first tournaments of the official Fortnite competitions will take place and it will be bigger than people might have expected. Epic Games has announced on their website that they will provide a very generous amount of $100 million in prize pool money to the competitions.
“Fortnite Competitors! Grab your gear, drop in and start training. Since the launch of Fortnite Battle Royale we’ve watched the passion for community competition grow and can’t wait to empower you to battle with the best. In the 2018 – 2019 season, Epic Games will provide $100,000,000 to fund prize pools for Fortnite competitions. We’re getting behind competitive play in a big way, but our approach will be different – we plan to be more inclusive, and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game. Stay tuned for more details about competitive structures and eligible platforms in the weeks ahead!”, the statement on Epic Games’ website read.
It’s still unclear how the tournament will be organized and whether it will be one big event or if it will be divided into multiple smaller events that will take place on more locations across the world. Looking at the company’s statement it could be aiming for the same success top Twitch streamer Tyler Blevins’ (a.k.a. “Ninja”) has booked with his event last month in Las Vegas. Over 200 people from all over the United States attended to get a chance to play against “Ninja” and other well-knows top players.
With the $100 million in prize pool money, Fortnite will be one the biggest e-sport games ever held. Since 2011 Valve Corporation has paid out $142,238,320 and some change during 927 international Dota 2 tournaments. Other big tournaments include League of Legends and Counter-Strike: GO with an amount in prize pool money of over $50 million.
It’s still unclear when Fortnite will take place but Epic will be busy with other big things in the meantime. Next month, the company will be hosting one of the tournaments held during the annual E3 convention in Los Angeles, where fifty pairs of YouTube stars, Twitch streamers and other celebrities will play against each other .