Fortnite esports might look a lot different going forward.
During the World Cup Solo Finals, the Fortnite Championship Series was announced. Few details were given, but all signs point to this being a major shakeup to the structure of the game’s competitive scene.
“Competitive Fortnite isn’t going anywhere. Once Season 9 wraps up and we move on to our next season, we will be debuting the Fortnite Championship Series,” Fortnite caster Sundown said. “This will give players a chance to compete against the best of the best where every single result matters.”
If that sounds vague or confusing, that’s understandable. No real details on the FCS were given and it is unclear what sort of format will be used or how events will be arranged.
Still, there is cause for excitement when it comes to the future of Fortnite esports.
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Professional Fortnite players have long struggled with one of the most mismanaged competitive scenes in esports.
Tournaments are consistently mired by controversial rule changes before events, glitches during play, and players venting their frustrations after. This has hit live events including ESL’s Katowice Royale particularly hard, but even Epic Games’ own events consistently wind up having some sort of drama pop up along the way, whether it’s bugs or hardware restrictions.
This has fostered a great deal of frustration with the state of Fortnite esports, which has seen even top stars like Turner “Tfue” Tenney openly mull becoming full-time streamers.
Likely to start rebuilding those bridges and give a clearer direction to the game, Epic Games hired Overwatch League commissioner Nate Nanzer. Though Nanzer has not announced any specific plans for the future of Fortnite esports, this likely marks the start of his retooling of the game.
The Fortnite Championship Series begins with the launch of Season 10. No release date has been announced but a recent tweet from Epic suggests it might kick off on August 1.
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