Fortnite reveal their Winter Royale Online Tournament

It’s no secret that Epic has big plans for Fortnite as an esport, and their latest patch and events are only making their standing stronger. November 24-25 is when the open qualifier will begin for the Winter Royale Tournament Online, and players can start to compete for their places in region finals in December. The tournament is designed to emulate the qualifier process for the World Cup, and there are two main regions. Europe and North America.

© Epic Games

The event will consist of solo game modes only, but there is a cool prize pool of $1 million up for grabs. There are several rounds which allow players to try their luck and test their skills, and there’s no need to worry if you have a particularly bad round, the one with the highest score you achieve, will be the one that is counted at the end of the day. Perfect if you like to warm up with a game or two before trying to compete seriously.

Don’t worry if you aren’t in either, Epic have promised more regions will have more tournaments over the coming months as well. This solo event is set to pitch the very best of the best Fortnite players against one another, and is backed up by another update from Epic.

Since the inclusion of tournament modes, there has been some disappointment from the fan-base over the match making system. While it’s quite common for these to need a tweak after release, Epic has not shied away from the challenge. Their latest patch has re-balanced this system so that players will now start to face opponents based more closely on their accumulated point levels for that tournament. This should go a long way to ease some of the pain points players have been experiencing.

While the hope is that v6.30 will sort a lot of things out, Epic have openly said they are prepared to keep working on this system to achieve a good level of balance. It wasn’t the only focus of this update though, as well as the Winter Royale Tournament Online, they have also introduced Pop-Up Cups. These are similar to the limited time game modes, but with a more competitive edge. Points systems will apply, but the map settings will contain aspects that are not found in the normal game modes. These tournaments will be shorter in duration than a full World Cup for example, but allow players even more opportunities to compete against one another.

Fortnite has come on in leaps and bounds in its bid to develop its esports offering and Epic have once again made a big commitment to it with this update. Multiple types of tournaments and competitions, the ability to compete from home and some great cash prizes are only drawing interest up and up. Hopefully we’ll see some new names emerging into the esports world through these efforts, and with the latest tournament finishing at the beginning of December, it’s a great way to round out the competitive year.