In Fortnite, Epic seems to be slowly getting a grip on eSports. After a disastrous start, the 8-million-dollar tournament “Summer Skirmish” is getting better. In week 5 of Summer Skirmish, Epic is introducing an innovative format: Kingpin. Here you can watch the live stream.
What kind of tournament is this? Epic has provided 100 million USD in prize money for the eSports season 2018/2019 of Fortnite. It starts with an 8 million dollar tournament, the “Summer Skirmish.”
For 8 weeks, solo players and duos will compete against each other in changing formats. Epic had to find these formats laboriously.
Disastrous tournament is getting better
All beginnings are hard: The first week went disastrously for Summer Skirmish.
A conservative tournament format in duo rewarded defensive play too much. There were also lags. The first tournament weekend had to be canceled after just a few matches.
There were repeated problems and setbacks:
- In week 2, there were problems again, and it seemed like they were still looking for a format that would be enjoyable for the viewers.
- In week 3, the creator of the popular Fortnite Friday was suddenly upset that he had to make room for others.
In the last week, week four, Epic finally found an attractive format. In “Hold the Throne,” Epic rewarded kills and even offered a special bonus.
Format Kingpin sounds the most interesting so far
Week 5 could be the game changer: In this week, the fifth, there is again a new format at Summer Skirmish.
- The team that has the most points at the end of 8 matches wins.
- Points are awarded per kill.
- If a team wins the match, their kills in the next match count triple.
- If a team achieves 7 kills in a match, their kills in the next match count double.
Mode rewards aggressive playstyle with kills – and then you become a target
What does this mean? This “Kingpin” mode emphasizes kills.
While in the earlier formats survival until the end was the priority, in Kingpin it is especially important to live as long as possible to have more time to achieve kills.
If a duo has a particularly strong round, the next round becomes the “bonus round” and kills become even more important. It is crucial to keep cool. Meanwhile, the other teams should focus on eliminating such “charged” duos with high priority so they do not accumulate too many points.
How much money is at stake? The winners of a day receive $75,000. After that, it goes down tiered. 2nd place gets $60,000, 3rd place $50,000, 10th place still $17,500, and even the twentieth duo takes home $7,500. That’s quite impressive.
Who is participating?
- The participant field consists of 29 invited teams. These are eSports players and streamers like Ninja, DrLupo, Myth, or gamers from teams like Liquid. The winner from last weekend, Notvidi, is also invited.
- Additionally, there are 19 pairs who performed well in the “Showdown,” an in-game mode. So these are “amateurs” who qualified for the major league through good performance against other amateurs.
Underdog plays with superstar Ninja
Is there a special duo? The star from last weekend, player Reverse2K, will compete in a team with Ninja. Reverse2K qualified as a “smaller” streamer and then had a great performance, claiming the “throne” in one day.
Apparently, Reverse2K directly asked Ninja if he was ready for a duo. Ninja is considered one of the best Fortnite players in the world and is currently the star of Twitch.
Live stream of the Summer Skirmish on Friday evening and Thursday evening
Where can we watch the Summer Skirmish? You can watch the tournament here on Twitch.
- It starts on the night from Friday to Saturday at 11 PM our time.
- On Saturday, August 11th, it will start at 7 PM.
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