Fortnite announces a $100 million prize pool for 2018

The Fortnite developer Epic Games announced its plans to provide a $100 million for esports tournament prize pools. Yeap, you read it right. A hundred freaking million. The prize pool applies to the 2018-2019 season of the standalone Battle Royale mode. If you don’t know what the game is about, it’s a free-to-play mode that locks a hundred players in a winner-takes-all fight for fame and glory.

@Epic Games

For now, it’s unclear whether Fortnite esports will follow the same format. Large-scale battles tend to be confusing for viewers, as it’s challenging to follow so much action from top-tier pros. Meanwhile, coming up with something new carries the risk of alienating your player base since no one wants to watch what’s essentially a different game.

Of course, tournament organizers have already made attempts at hosting Fortnite competitions. The most recent example would be a string of showmatches by Esports Arena and a popular Twitch streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. The entire event focused on Ninja who had to play 10 consecutive Fortnite games with a $2,5000 bounty on his head. Competitors from all over the world went after him, but the streamer still managed to win a single game, which is a no small feat to manage, considering he had to go through a throng of bloodthirsty players.

The event was a lot of fun, but Fortnite esports will likely follow a different direction. After all, if the entire field is composed of the Fortnite best players that are as skilled as Ninja, it’s hard to put the spotlight on just one of them. Still, Epic Games wouldn’t announce a $100 million prize pool without a good idea of where to take their IP. And while details aren’t there yet, this is already looking like the dawn of Fortnite esports.

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