In Fortnite there is a “Pro-Am” tournament coming up. In this showcase battle, the stars of Fortnite play alongside celebrities from music, sports, or TV. But this time, Epic seems to have miscalculated. Twitch stars like Ninja and Tfue want to drop out of the tournament to qualify for the World Cup. Now, Epic has postponed Week 10 of the World Cup qualifiers.
Update 7:47 PM: As Epic announces, they have indeed postponed Week 10 of the qualification matches for the Fortnite World Championship.
The tournament is moving from June 15 and 16 to June 20 and 21.
As a special treat for the streamers, Epic is doubling the prize money for the two weekends to $2,000,000 each.
The change was evidently necessary after conflicting schedules arose with the biggest Twitch stars of Fortnite. Epic had scheduled a Pro-Am tournament for the same time as Week 10, for which some of the leading Twitch streamers of Fortnite were booked.
Epic has now resolved this scheduling conflict and simply tossed another 2 million USD at the problem.
Original Report:
What kind of tournament is this? In the “Pro-Am,” Epic Games creates duos:
- famous Fortnite players who have built a community on YouTube or Twitch
- and celebrities, such as NBA star Josh Hart, former football player Marshawn Lynch, or actor Joel McHale
The tournament takes place in Inglewood, California, during the week when everyone should already be in Los Angeles for E3 2019. At the “Fortnite Summer Block Party,” Epic seems to want to wrap up the E3.
Such a tournament occurred a year ago. Ninja and Marshmello won that one, and it seems to have paid off for both.
For weeks now, Epic Games has been hyping its Fortnite tournament on Twitter by showcasing pairs who will participate in the Pro-Am in LA.
Scheduling Issues, Because Stars Don’t Have Duo Tickets for the World Cup Yet
Here’s the problem: The “Pro-Am” tournament takes place on June 16.
This weekend also offers the last chance to qualify for the Fortnite World Championship in Duo; this is Week 10 of the qualifiers.
The two biggest stars of Fortnite on Twitch, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins and Turner “Tfue” Tenney, are both not qualified with their partners yet.
They desperately want to seize their chance and secure the last ticket to the World Cup. Both are incredibly ambitious and want to compete in duos.
Even though one can win 3 million dollars at the Pro-Am tournament for a good cause, the World Cup is about prestige and 30 million dollars for oneself.
So they don’t have time for Pro-Am that weekend, but both are already confirmed. As the two biggest Fortnite streamers in the world, Ninja and Tfue are also significant draws for the event.
Here’s how the pros are reacting: Tfue is still keeping a low profile. But his duo partner Cloak is ramping up. Since he found out on June 2 when the Pro-Am tournament he’s confirmed for is, Cloak has been a bit restless.
He is urging Epic to postpone the qualifiers for Duos by a week, so there’s enough time to play or watch the Pro-Am tournament.
Cloak apparently cannot believe what Epic was thinking with this scheduling.
Then his partner, DJ Dillon Francis, asked him if he wants to leave him hanging. Cloak replied, “No, help me get Epic to care about its community for once.”
To which Dillon wrote: “They won’t listen to me, I’m just a DJ, man!”
Ninja, on the other hand, seems to want to play both sides, but is worried about how he can manage it. He wants to somehow drop out of Pro-Am but also not.
He is considering whether he can fly to the West Coast for the event while still playing with his partner Reverse2k on the East Coast server.
But that would likely cause ping issues … difficult. It will be interesting to see if Epic reacts to this.
