Epic Games cancels Fortnite World Cup, announces new schedule

The 2019 Fortnite World Cup, Epic’s first major venture in competitive Fortnite, broke all kinds of viewership and prize money records last year. Kyle “Bugha” Giersdork’s $3 million first place finish was even discussed on late-night television. Unfortunately, this year’s World Cup has officially been canceled, according to the Fortnite Competitive Twitter account. 

The following thread outlined Epic’s plans for competitive Fortnite going into the rest of 2020. 

Fortnite competitive schedule changes for 2020

The first tweet in the thread came as no surprise to anyone following world news or esports trends, as nearly all physical events in 2020 have been moved to an online format. 

“Due to the limitations of cross region online competition, there will not be a Fortnite World Cup in 2020,” the FNCompetitive team tweeted. 

For the time being, Epic didn’t seem to know when large in-person events would return or be “practical,” but they appeared hopeful that there’d be “some form” of a World Cup in 2021. Meanwhile, they wanted to outline changes coming to Fortnite’s online events, including the Fortnite Championship Series and Cash Cups. Without a World Cup, these regular events will become the main competitive outlet for pro Fortnite players, leading Epic to improve on their existing format. 

Cash Cups will also be seeing a change in tournament structure and point earning. Now, two-step Cash Cups will qualify a top group of players into a final lobby. 

“We’re ensuring players can hop into competitive matches with cash prizes on a routine basis,” FNCompetitive noted. 

Epic will also be continuing their work with third parties to provide more competitive experiences for players. Of course, these will all be held online for the time being. 

But there was one big change that seemed to catch the Fortnite community by surprise. It seems that Epic has finally listened to fan feedback as they’re bringing back official broadcasts of the FNCS. This includes the FNCS Invitational this weekend, which begins at 1 PM EST on Saturday. The competition can be viewed on their Twitch or on YouTube. This news was met with the most excitement from Fortnite competitors and fans. 

The FNCS Invitational features the best Fortnite players from North America, Europe, Brazil, Asia, Oceania, and the Middle East, all fighting for a piece of a $2 million prize pool. 

The FNCS starts on May 9 and will run for three consecutive weekends. Each week, players will duke it out to advance in stages and bigger prize pools. There will also be an Open Qualifier for 100 “champion” ranked players in each region to earn an invite to the FNCS Invitational, playing alongside the best pros in the world.