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The first Fortnite World Cup with $100 million in prize money is happening in 2019

The first Fortnite World Cup with $100 million in prize money is happening in 2019

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Qualifiers start later this year, and anyone can participate

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Epic Games announced more details about its e-sports plans for Fortnite, revealing today during its live celebrity-streamer ProAm tournament in Los Angeles during E3 that the competitions will all be part of what’s called the Fortnite World Cup. The prize pool, first announced earlier this year, will be $100 million. It will be spread out over a number of different “organized events, online events, and major organized competitions all over the world,” reads the developer’s blog post.

Crucially, Epic is taking a far different approach than other e-sports leagues, like Blizzard’s Overwatch League. (Though Blizzard does operate an annual Overwatch World Cup as well.) “This is for you, the players. Qualifications for the Fortnite World Cup will be based on merit. Epic will not be selling teams or franchises, and won’t allow third-party leagues to do so either,” explains the post.

The qualifiers will begin this fall, and the World Cup will take place in late 2019. We don’t know if that competition will look anything like the FIFA World Cup, but it’s safe to say Epic could be planning a giant, flashy finish to its first competitive e-sports series. So perhaps the final World Cup will be a knockout-style tournament featuring dozens of top players and broadcast live.

Here are the full details from Epic’s blog post:

We’ll be supporting community organized events, online events, and major organized competitions all over the world, where anyone can participate, and anyone can win. Fortnite World Cup Qualifiers begin in Fall 2018, and culminate in the first Fortnite World Cup in late 2019. Whether you’re in the competition or watching at home, we want this to be fun for everyone.

What about the specifics? The $100,000,000 will be split between many events at different levels of competition around the globe. Fortnite World Cup play will focus on Solos and Duos, but there’ll be plenty of opportunities to squad-up in competition, too.

This is for you, the players. Qualifications for the Fortnite World Cup will be based on merit. Epic will not be selling teams or franchises, and won’t allow third-party leagues to do so either.

Rules, Player Code of Conduct, specifics about platforms and Fall 2018 schedule are on the way. If you’re interested in learning more about Fortnite competitive play sign up here. Stay tuned for more!