In Fortnite , there will be no World Cup in 2020. Developer Epic has canceled the World Cup due to the global crisis caused by the novel coronavirus. In 2019, the Fortnite World Championship was a massive spectacle, with $30 million in prize money, turning teenagers into millionaires. In 2020, there will only be online tournaments.
Epic had promised in March that there would be a statement regarding further e-sports plans for Fortnite in April. That statement is now here and sobering.
This is the announcement from Epic: For 2020, all Fortnite competitions will be held online. Due to this change, there will be no Fortnite World Cup in 2020.
Epic Games announced this on Twitter on April 30. The decision is clearly in light of the global coronavirus pandemic.
Epic says it doesn’t know when it will be possible to hold large, global e-sports tournaments with participants on-site again. However, Epic hopes to host a Fortnite World Cup in some form in 2021.
The World Championship for Fortnite had not yet been announced for 2020. If everything had gone normally, Epic would likely have held the Fortnite World Cup in the summer.
This is how it was in 2019: Last year, the Fortnite World Cup was a huge event. 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf won $3 million as the solo world champion. A total of $30 million was awarded in prize money just for the final event.
Teenagers became millionaires.
This is how e-sports will be in Fortnite in 2020: Epic Games has announced it will continue to hold online tournaments. The “Fortnite Champion Series” is set to continue through each season in 2020.
There will also be more cash cups.
E-Sports in Fortnite already criticized before Corona
This is what is behind it: The e-sports scene for Fortnite was already in a weak state even before the coronavirus pandemic. The WM 2019 was indeed a huge event, but Fortnite as a game did not really benefit from the World Cup. Once the event was over, there was little left to offer in terms of e-sports for Fortnite. There was a lack of a highlight.
It already seemed, even before the Corona pandemic, as if Fortnite was working on a new concept and would not repeat the massive event World Cup from 2019.
However, the previous online tournaments in Fortnite have not been going exceptionally well. There are often issues with cheaters who are then banned or cause outrage.
While online tournaments also involve prize money, the money is distributed across 12 sub-categories (6 regions with 2 divisions each: PC and others), making the tournaments not as spectacular as a large event for $30 million.
In recent months, Epic has been criticized for not presenting a clear vision of how e-sports in Fortnite should continue. Some high-profile Fortnite players have already left the game for Valorant.
