Epic Games Announces Fortnite World Cup, Set For 2019
Published: Jun 14, 2018 - Last Updated: Jan 30, 2023
Developer Epic Games has announced a World Cup for its signature title Fortnite. Launching in 2019, the event will help the company to further develop a competitive scene around the game.
Everyone is welcome
Announced at Fortnite’s ProAm event during this week’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), Epic emphasized participation opportunities for everyone in the community. Epic decided not to sell any team spots for the event, while also not allowing third parties to do so. This means qualifications will strictly be merit-based where the best will claim their individual spots.
The announcement of the World Cup follows the company’s recent commitment of $100 million for future development of the Fortnite scene. This sum will, according to Epic, be split among community-run, online, and major organized tournaments.
Besides qualifiers starting this fall and the matches focusing on solo and duo competition style, no other information on the structure was given. Epic did, however, say more details should come soon, including a schedule for 2018 and a player code of conduct.
Fortnite’s success
There’s no doubt Fortnite is extremely successful. It’s not only attracted a ridiculous number of players in its short existence, but its popularity shows no signs of slowing.
This week’s pro-am charity showcase was another example of the game’s success. The celebrity professional and amateur competition attracted a peak concurrent fan base of 700,000. The $3 million charity prize pool event, which was held in Los Angeles’ Banc of California Stadium, paved the way for Fortnite’s upcoming competitive year.
The battle for battle royale
Fortnite has also attracted some not-so-positive attention lately. The other big player in the battle royale scene, PUBG, recently filed a lawsuit claiming its main competitor is unlawfully similar to its own title. This is even more interesting when considering both games were built using the Unreal Engine, a game development tool owned by Epic Games.
Given Fortnite’s success, it doesn’t come as a big surprise that players are taking a deeper look into its dynamics. While there were probably other factors at play, PUBG losing a lot of its fan base is closely tied with Fortnite’s popularity explosion.
Image credit: Epic Games
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