Now might not be the time to take a break from Fortnite, especially if you fancy your skills. Epic Games has just announced the Fortnite Summer Skirmish series and is putting up $8 million dollars in prize money to be awarded over the course of the next eight weeks of competition. To spice things up, the format and competitors “may” change from week-to-week.
Things kick off this weekend with a $250,000 Duos competition. According to Epic Games, this first competition is available to qualifying participants who are “community creators” or “players who have demonstrated their competitive prowess.” Apparently the invitations have already been sent out so there should be some bragging on social media soon enough.
For the kick-off competition it makes sense for Epic to invite some high-profile Fortnite players and celebrities. It’s called marketing folks! No doubt the Fortnite players with the largest number of followers or the most subscribers are getting invited. That said, Epic Games is on record as saying they are going to be “more inclusive” than other eSport competitions. More hope can be gleamed in this recent announcement when Epic Games says “stay tuned for more information on how you can qualify for an event.” So if you’re not a well known player but have some serious skills, keep a close eye on future Summer Skirmish competition announcements to see how to qualify.
Epic Games is taking eSports seriously with a previous announcement that they are funding $100 million dollars for Fortnite tournaments in the 2018-2019 season. In that sense, the 8 million for the Summer Series seems like a drop in the bucket. But hey, who’s complaining about the chance to claim some money for being one of the best players at the world’s most popular game? Those are major bragging rights.
Don’t let all the talk about millions of dollars make you forget that Fortnite Season 5 drops early tomorrow morning. With that comes a lot of news so stay close to GR for all the coverage!
