Fortnite World Cup


The Fortnite World Cup is an annual esports competition based on the video game Fortnite, with the inaugural final events taking place July 26–28, 2019 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York. A total prize pool was available across the various competitions.

Overview

The Fortnite World Cup uses two of the game modes available to the video game, Fortnite. The main World Cup event as well as the Pro-Am use Fortnite Battle Royale, a battle royale game where up to 100 players airdrop onto an island without any weapons or armor, save for a pickaxe. Once on the ground, players must scavenge for weapons, armor, and healing items, as well as using their pickaxe to knock down existing features to gather wood, stone, and metal resources. This all must be done while avoiding attacks from other players, as well as staying within a shrinking circle on the map or risk taking fatal damage outside it. Players can use gathered resources to build walls, floors, and stairs and ramps to use as cover from attacks. The last player or team left alive wins. In Fortnite Creative, players can build unique courses at their own pace, which can be used to create competitive events that can then share with others.
The Fortnite World Cup had online events over 10 weeks from April to June 2019 for people to place. The weeks alternated between solo players and duos teams. During the Saturday of each week, any player or duo could compete with others by geographic region, playing up to 10 matches to earn points through eliminations and victories. The top three thousand players/teams from each region then competed on the Sunday event, again playing up to ten matches to earn points. The top point-scorers in each region from the Sunday event then proceed through to the World Cup, a total of about twenty players/teams each week. An estimated 40 million players vied for spots in the solo and duos World Cup. In the World Cup finals, the competitors played a total of six matches, with points earned for the highest finishers. The solo player or duo with the highest point total after six matches won the grand prize, with other players getting part of the prize pool available. All solo players received a minimum of for reaching the finals, with the top prize being. Similarly, each duo team in the final received a minimum of with the top team winning.
The Fortnite Creative Cup had a similar online process to select the players for the finals, taking place over five two-week periods from April to June 2019. Each active week, a new Creative challenge is available. Players, once completed with their Creative island, must submit a video of that challenge to Epic in that period. For each period, Epic selected three of the best entries by a panel of judges. Each selected entry earns a cash prize of and a guaranteed spot in the Creative Cup finals. From the fifteen winning entries, five were selected by Epic to be used in the Creative Cup finales. In the finales, eight teams of four, consisting of those that had their Creative island selected and other notable Fortnite players, complete in these five events to earn the best overall score. The winners in the finale split a prize pool.
The teams for the Fortnite Pro-Am are selected by Epic Games, with each team made up of a Fortnite streamer and a celebrity. The teams each played five matches, with a scoring system for the winning teams. The team with the highest overall score after five matches won the Pro-Am. Each team received a minimum of with the winning team receiving.

History

had launched Fortnite in its original planned form, now known as , as an early access title in July 2017, around the same time that the first influential battle royale game, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds was released. Inspired by this, Epic created a variation of Fortnite and released it as Fortnite Battle Royale in September 2017. While free-to-play, the game was supported by microtransactions. Fortnite Battle Royale rapidly became popular, and by June 2018, with the game ported to computer, consoles, and mobile devices, had reached 125 million players. Total 2018 revenue for Fortnite Battle Royale was estimated at by analysis firm SuperData Research. Epic designated of these revenues to position Fortnite Battle Royale as an esport.
The inaugural Fortnite World Cup was first announced in February 2019. While Epic planned to run the event in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic led Epic to cancel the event for the year, though will still hold other Fortnite seasonal championship events.

2019 events

Format

The Fortnite World Cup was split into two different events, one for solo players, and a separate for two-player teams, or duos.
Both the solos and duos formats consisted of six matches.
World Cup solo and duo final standings:

Solos

The 2019 solo event finals were held on July 28, 2019. The event was won by 16-year-old American Kyle Giersdorf, known online as Bugha, who took home the grand prize.
The scoring format in solos provided points for eliminations and for placement. Competitors received one point for each elimination and non-cumulative placement points. For solos the placement points were as follows:
PlaceTeamPointsPrize Money
1stBugha59$3,000,000
2ndpsalm33$1,800,000
3rdEpikWhale32$1,200,000
4thKreo30$1,050,000
5thKING30$900,000
6thCrue27$600,000
7thSkite26$525,000
8thNayte26$375,000
9thRiversan24$300,000
10thFatch24$225,000
11thRhux23$150,000
12thTchub23$150,000
13thMongraal23$150,000
14thstompy22$150,000
15thDubs21$150,000
16thPika21$112,500
17thBELAEU21$112,500
18thClix20$112,500
19thPeterpan20$112,500
20thCommandment20$112,500
21stDomentos20$50,000
22ndSkailereu19$50,000
23rdBizzle19$50,000
24thEndretta19$50,000
25thbenjyfishy19$50,000

PlaceTeamPointsPrize Money
51stNicks12$50,000
52ndJarkoS12$50,000
53rdArkhram1x12$50,000
54thEvilmare12$50,000
55thHood.J12$50,000
56thclarityG12$50,000
57thleleo12$50,000
58thlolb0om12$50,000
59thletw1k311$50,000
60thCeice11$50,000
61stAspect11$50,000
62ndMegga11$50,000
63rdFledermoys11$50,000
64thBucke11$50,000
65thBanny10$50,000
66thEmqu10$50,000
67thTfue7$50,000
68thsozmann6$50,000
69thUnknownxArmy6$50,000
70thKawzmik6$50,000
71stLasers6$50,000
72ndErouce5$50,000
73rdFaxFox5$50,000
74thsnow5$50,000
75thdrakoNz5$50,000

Duos

The duo event finals were held on July 27, 2019, with Emil Bergquist Pedersen and David Wang sharing its grand prize.
The scoring format in duos provided points for eliminations and for placement. Competitors received one point for each elimination and non-cumulative placement points. For duos the placement points were as follows:
PlaceTeamPointsPrize money
1stNyhrox + aqua51$3,000,000
2ndRojo + Wolfiez47$2,250,000
3rdElevate + Ceice45$1,800,000
4thSaf + Zayt44$1,500,000
5thArkhram1x + Falconer44$900,000
6thMongraal + Mitr040$450,000
7thMegga + Dubs38$375,000
8thDerox + itemm36$375,000
9thZexrow + Vinny1x35$225,000
10thVato + Skite31$225,000
11thDeadra + M11Z30$100,000
12thEpikWhale + storm29$100,000
13thNoward + 4zr27$100,000
14thbenjyfishy + MrSavage27$100,000
15thKeys + Slackes27$100,000
16thMackWood + Calculator26$100,000
17thSpades + Crimz26$100,000
18thhype + Serpennt26$100,000
19thBadSniper + Oslo24$100,000
20thScarlet + bell24$100,000
21stTh0masHD + Klusia24$100,000
22ndChapix + Crue24$100,000
23rdKinstaar + Hunter23$100,000
24thznappy + RedRush23$100,000
25thTschinken + stompy22$100,000

Creative Cup

The creative cup involved 8 teams, each led by a popular Fortnite icon. The team leaders held qualifiers, in which they had those attempting to qualify participate in a challenge in creative mode. The top 3 performers on each challenge were recruited to their respective leader’s team. The cup included three different creative game maps: a king of the hill map, a prop hunt map, and a death run map. Each map had one round with three matches dedicated to it, and the final round had one match on each map. In the end, the “Fish Fam” led by Faze Cizzorz won the creative World Cup.
Creative Cup final standings:
PlaceTeamPrize money
1stFish Fam$1,345,000
2ndFunky Fighters$345,000
3rdRavens' Revenge$315,000
4thLil Whip Warriors$295,000
5thChicken Champions$270,000
6thLlama Record Co.$250,000
7thSunshine Soldiers$235,000
8thCuddle Crew$195,000

Pro-Am

The 2019 Fortnite Pro-Am - teaming 50 popular Fortnite streamers with various celebrities, was held on July 26, 2019 at The Forum In Los Angeles, CA, for a prize to be split between the winning pair to go to charities of their choice. Streamer Airwaks and music producer RL Grime won the event, their second win after a similar Pro-Am event at E3 2019, with their selected charities being the World Wildlife Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union, respectively. Other teams split the remaining prize pool for charity, with each team assured a minimum of.
Pro-Am final standings:
PlaceTeamPointsPrize money
1stAirwaks + RL GRIME52$1,000,000
2ndSinOoh + Oking40$500,000
3rdJelty + Gaborever39$250,000
4thJacob + Clare Grant35$100,000
5thTfue + Nav35$85,000
6thJT Brown + Marksman33$75,000
7thVinnie Pergola + Symfuhny31$65,000
8thSean O'Malley + CouRageJD30$55,000
9thWitt Lowry + Cloak31$40,000
10thNICKMERCS + Mario Hezonja25$30,000
11thNinja + Marshmello24$20,000
12thMichael Drayer + Myth24$20,000
13thRobert Abisi + Aydan23$20,000
14thRobleis + Chigua23$20,000
15thMrFreshAsian + Desmond Chiam22$20,000
16thDavid Williams + WILDCAT19$20,000
17thNick Shanholtz + Sean18$20,000
18thLiam McIntyre + Lachlan17$20,000
19thFearItSelf + MacKenzie Bourg16$20,000
20thDJ Van + iFaris13$20,000
21stCalango + Caue Moura13$20,000
22ndSev7n + PC Siqueira13$20,000
23rdJawn Ha + Wade12$20,000
24thNick Eh 30 + Max Carver11$20,000
25thJordan Fisher + Ewok10$20,000

Other activities

In addition to the games in the stadium, the area around the stadium in Flushing Meadows–Corona Park was set up for a number of fan events, such as contests and games, and a concert by Marshmello.

Viewership

Epic reported that tickets for the 23,700 stadium venue were sold out. An estimated 2.3 concurrent million viewers on Twitch and YouTube streaming services watched the World Cup finales; additional viewers included those watching the final events from within Fortnite, and China viewership.

Legacy

Shortly after his win in the World Cup, Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf had been swatted while streaming from his home. However, one of the officers responding to the call had recognized Giersdorf from his win, and quickly calmed the situation down to determine that they were responding to a false call.