Fortnite esports: the World Cup and beyond – The Verge The Verge is about technology and how it makes us feel. Founded in 2011, we offer our audience everything from breaking news to reviews to award-winning features and investigations, on our site, in video, and in podcasts. 2020-04-30T19:35:34+00:00 https://www.theverge.com/rss/stream/20512498 https://platform.theverge.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/01/verge-rss-large_80b47e.png?w=150&h=150&crop=1 Andrew Webster <![CDATA[There won’t be a Fortnite World Cup in 2020]]> https://www.theverge.com/2020/4/30/21243190/fortnite-world-cup-2020-canceled 2020-04-30T15:35:34-04:00 2020-04-30T15:35:34-04:00

The Fortnite World Cup is the latest event to be canceled because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Today, Epic Games revealed the upcoming roadmap for competitive Fortnite, and unfortunately, that included news that all events will be held online for the foreseeable future. "Due to the limitations of cross-region online competition, there will not be a Fortnite World Cup in 2020," the developer wrote in a tweet.

Given the uncertainty around the pandemic, it's not clear when in-person tournaments might happen again, but the developer apparently isn't giving up on the concept. "We don't know when a return to large, global, in-person events w …

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]]> Jay Peters <![CDATA[Epic delays Fortnite tournaments until it fixes performance issues]]> https://www.theverge.com/2020/3/2/21162003/epic-delays-fortnite-tournaments-fixes-performance-issues-world-cup 2020-03-02T17:34:34-05:00 2020-03-02T17:34:34-05:00

Epic Games announced today that it won't be hosting any Fortnite tournaments with cash prizes until it addresses performance issues affecting both players and the game's servers. "Our goal is to improve performance before kicking off any cash prized competition," the company said in a statement.

Disappointingly, this tweet seems to sugge …

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]]> Andrew Webster <![CDATA[Fortnite is adding skill-based matchmaking and bots]]> https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/23/20880354/fortnite-update-matchmaking-bots-season-11 2019-09-23T14:47:56-04:00 2019-09-23T14:47:56-04:00

Epic is making a big change to the way matchmaking works in Fortnite. With the game's next major update, v10.40, the developer will be introducing skill-based matchmaking to the battle royale. "Since battle royale launched, the matchmaking strategy for our core modes has remained mostly unchanged," Epic explained in a blog post published today. "Over the past two years, however, the range of player skill has grown considerably."

It's not clear exactly how this will work, but Epic says it is "introducing improved matchmaking logic to battle royale core modes to create fairer matches." According to the developer, this means that "you will be …

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]]> Nick Statt <![CDATA[Epic finally backpedals on Fortnite’s B.R.U.T.E. mech suit with dramatic nerfs]]> https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/22/20829047/epic-fortnite-mech-suit-brute-nerf-update-changes-arena-champion-series 2019-08-22T20:03:55-04:00 2019-08-22T20:03:55-04:00

Epic Games has heard the feedback loud and clear, and this afternoon the Fortnite developer announced a series of sweeping changes to its newly introduced B.R.U.T.E. mech suit that has had game's community in open revolt for the last few weeks. The changes have mostly gone into effect immediately, with Epic saying players will not need to update the game at all.

In a post titled "B.R.U.T.E. balance adjustments," Epic details the substantial nerfs coming to the item, including a reduction in the number of rockets it can fire, the rate it fires those rockets, and a number of other powerful advantages the suit offered players.

The mech suit f …

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]]> Nick Statt <![CDATA[Fortnite’s next tournament will also be its most controversial, thanks to mech suits]]> https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/16/20808538/fortnite-champion-series-tournament-esports-battle-royale-brute-mech-suits 2019-08-16T11:51:18-04:00 2019-08-16T11:51:18-04:00

The future of competitive Fortnite kicks off tomorrow with the Champion Series, and it's proving to be the most controversial e-sports contest developer Epic Games has ever embarked on. The issue is not prize money or who's allowed to participate. Instead, the furor is over an in-game mech suit, ripped straight from the pages of classic Japanese manga. And it's poised to boil over when pro players start competing for an eye-popping $10 million in prize money over the next 30 days.

Epic launched its most recent Fortnite season - the 10th one, dubbed Season X - a few days after the conclusion of its wildly successful World Cup event in New Y …

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]]> Nick Statt <![CDATA[Epic details the future of competitive Fortnite after the World Cup]]> https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/2/20752201/fortnite-champion-series-season-x-epic-games-competitive-esports-future 2019-08-02T16:48:14-04:00 2019-08-02T16:48:14-04:00

Epic's first year of competitive Fortnite wrapped on Sunday with the World Cup in New York, but the developer has certainly been keeping busy. The battle royale hit's tenth season launched just yesterday, and today the developer has released details about the title's e-sports future. Starting August 17th, Epic will be hosting the Champion Series, a new online tournament circuit designed to replace its the season model it experimented with starting last summer.

The Champion Series will take place over five weeks with weekend tournaments, culminating in a three-day championship tournament starting September 21st that will crown seasonal winne …

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]]> Nicole Carpenter <![CDATA[No women competed at the Fortnite World Cup, but top players want to change that]]> https://www.theverge.com/2019/8/2/20751540/fortnite-world-cup-women-esports-gen-g-faze-clan-ewok 2019-08-02T11:17:24-04:00 2019-08-02T11:17:24-04:00

Tina Perez, Madison Mann, Carlee Gress, and Hannah Reyes - known online as TINARAES, maddiesuun, Carlee, and Hannah - had never been to New York City before. Three of them live in Los Angeles and train in Fortnite at Gen.G's North American headquarters. Hannah, who's 17, is still in high school and lives at home. The women of Gen.G's Fortnite team were in New York City for the Fortnite World Cup Finals, the highly anticipated $30 million event that was held at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, a 23,000-seat tennis stadium best known as the home of the US Open.

None of Gen.G's players were at the event to compete. Out of the nearly 200 players …

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]]> Nick Statt <![CDATA[How the Fortnite World Cup could inspire the next Ninja or Tfue]]> https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20747521/fortnite-world-cup-esports-ninja-tfue-epic-games-bugha 2019-07-30T16:48:58-04:00 2019-07-30T16:48:58-04:00

The Fortnite World Cup Finals capped off this past weekend with a spectacular finish, awarding a total of $30 million to dozens of young players, some just 13 years old, in the second-largest payout in the history of competitive gaming. The star of the tournament was 16-year-old Pennsylvania native Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf, who took home $3 million by besting 99 of the planet's most skilled Fortnite pros across six rounds of battle royale matches.

Bugha, a professional gamer signed to the American e-sports organization Sentinels, has seen his stardom skyrocket in the past 48 hours, with an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon …

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]]> Andrew Webster <![CDATA[Watch Fortnite World Cup champion Bugha show off his trophy on The Tonight Show]]> https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/30/20746864/fortnite-world-cup-champion-bugha-jimmy-fallon-tonight-show 2019-07-30T09:19:37-04:00 2019-07-30T09:19:37-04:00

Fresh off a $3 million first-place finish at the inaugural Fortnite World Cup Finals, 16-year-old Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf stopped by The Tonight Show to talk about his win with Jimmy Fallon. Despite his newfound fame, the teenager comes off as charming and humble, taking Fallon through his daily routine of Fortnite practice. Bugha also reveals the origins of his handle - it was a childhood nickname from his grandfather - and Fallon gets a chance to confirm that the Battle Bus trophy is, indeed, quite heavy.

Fortnite World Cup

Read next: The Fortnite World Cup Finals were a victory for Epic Games

Of course, it's fairly normal for athletes to celebrate major wi …

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]]> Andrew Webster <![CDATA[The Fortnite World Cup Finals were a victory lap for Epic Games]]> https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/29/8934329/fortnite-world-cup-finals-epic-games-esports-ninja-tfue-bugha-marshmello 2019-07-29T10:04:28-04:00 2019-07-29T10:04:28-04:00
Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf. | Photo: Epic Games

The first thing I noticed when I walked into Arthur Ashe Stadium was the sound. It wasn't the roar of thousands of fans descending into a single venue or the cacophony of dozens of people working diligently behind the scenes to make sure everything went smoothly. Instead, I was greeted with the iconic Fortnite lobby music. It was blaring over seemingly every speaker across the famed tennis ground, which is best known for hosting the US Open for more than two decades. Under the watchful eyes of a towering Andre Agassi poster, I kept thinking about getting a few battle royale matches in on my phone.

This past weekend, developer Epic Games put …

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