Fortnite’s $1 million winter tournament is open to everyone

Fortnite’s next major tournament series will be the first time anyone can compete in the game for cash prizes. Today, developer Epic announced its “Winter Royale” competition, an open tournament with a $1 million prize pool that will start later this month. It’s an expansion of the tournament feature that Epic launched in October, but it has the important addition of winning actual money. Previous cash tournaments were restricted to pros or other invited players, like popular streamers.

Epic says that the competition will be divided into two phases: qualifiers and finals. “The top performers in each region for NA and EU will be verified, and those players found eligible will be invited to participate in the Winter Royale Finals for their region,” the developer explains. “While this tournament will be restricted to NA and EU, we’re planning on holding other region-specific tournaments in additional regions in the near future.”

The qualifiers will take place between November 24th and 25th, and the finals will start on November 30th in Europe and December 11th in North America. The news is particularly exciting because Epic says that Winter Royale will serve as a test for next year’s Fortnite World Cup, which was announced back at E3. With regard to Winter Royale, Epic explains that “this will help us gather valuable learnings to better prepare for the process next year.”

With $100 million earmarked for prize money, Epic clearly has big plans for Fortnite e-sports. And while things got off to a shaky start, the developer has steadily improved its competitive gaming offerings over the course of several tournaments.