In Fortnite, a 10 million dollar tournament is starting soon. It’s not just about intense eSport fights, but also about mini-games like golf or golf cart racing.
What kind of tournament is this? Epic plans to start the series “Fall Skirmish” on the weekend of September 21/22. The tournament will have a prize pool of 10 million US dollars (around 8.6 million euros).
The lucrative tournament is set to run for 6 weeks and will conclude on October 26/27 at TwitchCon.
This is the second official tournament that Epic is planning for Fortnite. It is shorter and has a larger prize pool than the first one, the Summer Skirmish. Overall, Epic has a budget of 100 million US dollars in prize money for Fortnite planned for the 2018/2019 season.
eSport with casual mini-games
The special feature: The tournament will not only focus on battle royale in the traditional sense. Epic has now revealed that they have a new approach. Epic wants to mix “competitive elements” with “entertaining elements”.
There will be a special challenge every week. For example:
- Golf cart racing like in an amusement park
- Masterful golf matches
- and other mini-games
Additionally, there will be “competitive tournaments” every weekend.
How do these tournaments factor into the victory? It is said that players compete in teams under a certain theme and then accumulate points in both formats: in the traditional and in the entertaining.
How exactly this is weighted is still not known. So, it could be that a tournament is decided not in the battle royale mode, but on the golf course.
Showdown Royale is coming back
Anyone can qualify: Epic has also announced that “Showdown Royale” will return to Fortnite at the beginning of October. This is a ranked mode that anyone can participate in through the normal client.
Those who perform well here can soon play with the professionals for 10 million US dollars.
- In the Summer Skirmish, Epic directly invited about half of the players – mostly streamers and eSports pros.
- The other half of the player base was recruited from the best in Showdown Royale.
How are the fans reacting? The mini-games are not yet widely known, and therefore it’s not a big topic yet, as this was just the preliminary news. More information is expected in the coming weeks.
On reddit, players have only sporadically discussed how eSport and such mini-games fit together. Some find a golf cart race for 10,000 dollars absurd. But it could also be fun.
Players think: When it comes to such large sums of money, everyone will take the party games seriously. However, it could be that eSport purists now see Fortnite even more critically as “too casual”.
What’s behind this: In everyday Fortnite, there are the “weekly challenges” to spice up the game. Players must play Fortnite golf or zoom around with golf carts.
Apparently, Epic is planning this for eSport too. A tournament could also have a bit of that “big Saturday night show” feel. Even in German television, shows work where contestants perform silly party games for huge sums (e.g., Schlag den Raab).
This fits with the idea that Fortnite is an eSport for everyone:
