Fortnite has decided to turn their once $30 million dollar World Cup tournament into a $20 million dollar Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) tournament. This has caused an uproar amongst the competitive players.
Fortnite Competitive has been a strong platform for competitive players to continue to grow their name and banking accounts. This spotlight allows so many individuals to compete on a huge stage for not only bragging rights but also major prizes.
In 2019, Kyle Giersdorf, known by his internet alias ‘Bugha’, was given this opportunity to shine on the biggest stage called the Fortnite World Cup. He won the entire tournament which gave him three million dollars and lots of recognition. He won the most out of the series of events, but the total amount of money given by Epic Games was 30 million dollars.
They decided to lower the amount of money earned during their FNCS competitive tournaments to spread out the prize pool a bit more. This will bring more tournaments stretched out over time, and it will not feel like the one bracket tournament that Fortnite World Cup once had. They wanted to bring together all platforms into a single bracket instead of console players having their own separate tournament from PC players. This, however, would mean that PC players would be given more money compared to console players because of how many more PC tournaments they would host.
In my opinion, it is good that they are allowing everyone to have an equal chance at winning big while also giving them all a platform to perform to their fullest potential. It is a wonderful way to have a Fortnite tournament while also allowing individuals to perform at home with safety because of COVID-19. However, this can seem like a damper because of how much the prize pool and degree of importance each tournament feels have suffered as time continues to move.
Seeing the prize pool lower makes the players feel as if they are not getting what others have previously been able to get prize wise. This can make them feel less appreciated and cause them not to work as hard for this reward. Of course, it is still a lot of money, but it can put a negative thought into their minds about it. Having a lot smaller tournaments can cause people to feel as if their tournaments do not matter.
Nate Hill, a competitive player of FaZe clan, shared his thoughts on Twitter about this change by saying “Hey @FortniteGame, if you crowd fund a small % from every battle pass to the Prize pool, we could have real tourneys that people are interested in watching.” His frustration with smaller tournaments is clear because they have overshadowed the World Cup. I agree with his idea of this. There should not be a separation between everyone. I think one big tournament with all high-level players is what made Fortnite competitive a joy to watch.
