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 US$30 million prize pool was available across the various competitions.

Fortnite World Cup

Game	Fortnite
Founded	2018
Owner(s)	Epic Games
Venue(s)	Arthur Ashe Stadium

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.[1] An estimated 40 million players vied for spots in the solo and duos World Cup.[2] 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.[3] All solo players received a minimum of US$50,000 for reaching the finals, with the top prize being US$3 million. Similarly, each duo team in the final received a minimum of US$100,000 with the top team winning US$3 million.[4]

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 US$5,000 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.[5] 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 US$3 million prize pool.[1]

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 US$20,000 with the winning team receiving US$1 million.

History

Epic Games had launched Fortnite in its original planned form, now known as Fortnite: Save the World, as an early access title in July 2017, around the same time that the first influential battle royale game, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds(PUBG) 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.[6] Total 2018 revenue for Fortnite Battle Royale was estimated at $2.4 billion by analysis firm SuperData Research.[7] Epic designated US$100 million of these revenues to position Fortnite Battle Royale as an esport.[8]

The inaugural Fortnite World Cup was first announced in February 2019.[9][10] 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.[11]

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.[12]

World Cup solo and duo final standings:[13]

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 US$3 million grand prize.[14]

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:

• 16th-25th, 3 points
• 15th-6th, 5 points
• 5th-2nd, 7 points
• Victory Royale (1st), 10 points

Place	Team	Points	Prize Money
1st	Bugha	59	$3,000,000
2nd	psalm	33	$1,800,000
3rd	EpikWhale	32	$1,200,000
4th	Kreo	30	$1,050,000
5th	KING	30	$900,000
6th	Crue	27	$600,000
7th	Skite	26	$525,000
8th	Nayte	26	$375,000
9th	Riversan	24	$300,000
10th	Fatch	24	$225,000
11th	Rhux	23	$150,000
12th	Tchub	23
13th	Mongraal	23
14th	stompy	22
15th	Dubs	21
16th	Pika	21	$112,500
17th	BELAEU	21
18th	Clix	20
19th	Peterpan	20
20th	Commandment	20
21st	Domentos	20	$50,000
22nd	Skailereu	19
23rd	Bizzle	19
24th	Endretta	19
25th	benjyfishy	19

Place	Team	Points	Prize Money
26th	Kinstaar	18	$50,000
27th	kurtz	18
28th	Klass	17
29th	MrSavage	17
30th	K1nzell	17
31st	fwexy	16
32nd	Letshe	16
33rd	TAKAMURAMM	16
34th	Pzuhs	16
35th	RogueShark	16
36th	Zayt	16
37th	Issa	16
38th	Vivid	16
39th	storm	15
40th	DiegoGB	14
41st	LeftEye	14
42nd	kolorful	14
43rd	teeq	14
44th	smeef	14
45th	DRG	14
46th	Prisi0n3r0	13
47th	Klusia	13
48th	wakie	13
49th	CoreGamingg	13
50th	Chenkinz	13

Place	Team	Points	Prize Money
51st	Nicks	12	$50,000
52nd	JarkoS	12
53rd	Arkhram1x	12
54th	Evilmare	12
55th	Hood.J	12
56th	clarityG	12
57th	leleo	12
58th	lolb0om	12
59th	letw1k3	11
60th	Ceice	11
61st	Aspect	11
62nd	Megga	11
63rd	Fledermoys	11
64th	Bucke	11
65th	Banny	10
66th	Emqu	10
67th	Tfue	7
68th	sozmann	6
69th	UnknownxArmy	6
70th	Kawzmik	6
71st	Lasers	6
72nd	Erouce	5
73rd	FaxFox	5
74th	snow	5
75th	drakoNz	5

Place	Team	Points	Prize Money
76th	Touzii	4	$50,000
77th	Luneze	4
78th	slaya	4
79th	Blax	4
80th	LYGHT	4
81st	BlastR	3
82nd	luki	3
83rd	Link	3
84th	marteen	3
85th	karhu	2
86th	Robabz	2
87th	Astonish	2
88th	Snayzy	2
89th	Legedien	2
90th	Reverse2k	1
91st	Maufin	1
92nd	Nittle	1
93rd	Hornet	1
94th	aqua	1
95th	Cat	1
96th	twins	1
97th	Herrions	-
98th	Clipnode	-
99th	Funk	-
100th	Arius	-

Duos

The duo event finals were held on July 27, 2019, with Emil Bergquist Pedersen ("Nyhrox") and David Wang ("Aqua") sharing its US$3 million grand prize.[14]

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:

• 15th-11th, 3 points
• 10th-6th, 5 points
• 5th-2nd, 7 points
• Victory Royale (1st), 10 points

Place	Team	Points	Prize money
1st	Nyhrox + aqua	51	$3,000,000
2nd	Rojo + Wolfiez	47	$2,250,000
3rd	Elevate + Ceice	45	$1,800,000
4th	Saf + Zayt	44	$1,500,000
5th	Arkhram1x + Falconer	44	$900,000
6th	Mongraal + Mitr0	40	$450,000
7th	Megga + Dubs	38	$375,000
8th	Derox + itemm	36	$375,000
9th	Zexrow + Vinny1x	35	$225,000
10th	Vato + Skite	31	$225,000
11th	Deadra + M11Z	30	$100,000
12th	EpikWhale + storm	29
13th	Noward + 4zr	27
14th	benjyfishy + MrSavage	27
15th	Keys + Slackes	27
16th	MackWood + Calculator	26
17th	Spades + Crimz	26
18th	hype + Serpennt	26
19th	BadSniper + Oslo	24
20th	Scarlet + bell	24
21st	Th0masHD + Klusia	24
22nd	Chapix + Crue	24
23rd	Kinstaar + Hunter	23
24th	znappy + RedRush	23
25th	Tschinken + stompy	22

Place	Team	Points	Prize money
26th	Tuckz + Vorwenn	22	$100,000
27th	KBB + YuWang	18
28th	ronaldo + XXiF	17
29th	Nikof + Airwaks	15
30th	Lanjok + Punisher	15
31st	Nate Hill + Funk	14
32nd	letw1k3 + fwexY	12
33rd	JAMSIDE + 7ssk7	11
34th	Tetchra + Eclipsae	11
35th	Sceptic + Clix	11
36th	CizLucky + Brush	11
37th	Aydan + Sean	10
38th	little + jay	9
39th	KING + xown	9
40th	parpy + volx	9
41st	Leno + Barl	9
42nd	Ming + Puzz	8
43rd	LeNain + Tyler15	8
44th	Quinten + Lnuef	6
45th	Skram + Mexe	5
46th	RoAtDW + BlooTea	4
47th	pfzin + Nicks	4
48th	wisheydp + GusTavox8	3
49th	xMende + XXM	2
50th	CoverH + Twizz	2

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: [13]

Place	Team	Prize money
1st	Fish Fam	$1,345,000
2nd	Funky Fighters	$345,000
3rd	Ravens' Revenge	$315,000
4th	Lil Whip Warriors	$295,000
5th	Chicken Champions	$270,000
6th	Llama Record Co.	$250,000
7th	Sunshine Soldiers	$235,000
8th	Cuddle 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,[15] for a US$1 million 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 US$3 million prize pool for charity, with each team assured a minimum of US$20,000.[16]

Pro-Am final standings: [13]

Place	Team	Points	Prize money
1st	Airwaks + RL GRIME	52	$1,000,000
2nd	SinOoh + Oking	40	$500,000
3rd	Jelty + Gaborever	39	$250,000
4th	Jacob + Clare Grant	35	$100,000
5th	Tfue + Nav	35	$85,000
6th	JT Brown + Marksman	33	$75,000
7th	Vinnie Pergola + Symfuhny	31	$65,000
8th	Sean O'Malley + CouRageJD	30	$55,000
9th	Witt Lowry + Cloak	31	$40,000
10th	NICKMERCS + Mario Hezonja	25	$30,000
11th	Ninja + Marshmello	24	$20,000
12th	Michael Drayer + Myth	24
13th	Robert Abisi + Aydan	23
14th	Robleis + Chigua	23
15th	MrFreshAsian + Desmond Chiam	22
16th	David Williams + WILDCAT	19
17th	Nick Shanholtz + Sean	18
18th	Liam McIntyre + Lachlan	17
19th	FearItSelf + MacKenzie Bourg	16
20th	DJ Van + iFaris	13
21st	Calango + Caue Moura	13
22nd	Sev7n + PC Siqueira	13
23rd	Jawn Ha + Wade	12
24th	Nick Eh 30 + Max Carver	11
25th	Jordan Fisher + Ewok	10

Place	Team	Points	Prize money
26th	Cody Walker + Doigby	8	$20,000
27th	Neckokun + ELLY	8
28th	Dante + TimTheTatman	8
29th	Wax Motif + Muselk	8
30th	Aaron Gordon + Ali-A	7
31st	Oscurlod + Dedreviil	7
32nd	DrLupo + Sigala	6
33rd	ONE_Shot_Gurl + Chandler Riggs	5
34th	ALEXANDER + VODKA	4
35th	Theslayer360 + Greer Grammer	3
36th	Kyle Kaplan + Kay	3
37th	Friz + Bizness Boi	3
38th	Slogoman + Jeremy Ray Taylor	3
39th	EduKof + Flakes Power	3
40th	Loserfruit + Alison Wonderland	2
41st	Alexia Raye + Jordyn Jones	1
42nd	Pai Tamben Joga + Detonator	1
43rd	Ashley Rickards + Exile	1
44th	Jared Abrahamson + Zorman	1
45th	Freddie Stroma + Yoshi	1
46th	DenkOps + Xavier Woods	-
47th	Joey Fatone + XpertThief	-
48th	Edwin Hodge + FRAPZZ	-
49th	RJ Mitte + Moyorz87	-
50th	ActionJaxon + Sarunas Jackson	-

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.[17]

Viewership

Epic reported that tickets for the 23,700 stadium venue were sold out.[17] An estimated 2.3 concurrent million viewers on Twitch and YouTube streaming services watched the World Cup finales;[4] additional viewers included those watching the final events from within Fortnite, and China viewership.[18]

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.[19]

References

2. Taylor, Derrick Bryson; Chokshi, Niraj (July 29, 2019). "This Fortnite World Cup Winner Is 16 and $3 Million Richer". The New York Times. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
4. Spangler, Todd (July 29, 2019). "Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019 Draws Over 2 Million Live Viewers". Variety. Retrieved July 29, 2019.
6. Statt, Nick (June 12, 2018). "Fortnite now has 125 million players just one year after launch". The Verge. Archived from the original on June 13, 2018. Retrieved June 12, 2018.
7. Handrahan, Matthew (January 16, 2019). "Fortnite tops SuperData's 2018 chart with $2.4 billion digital revenue". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved January 16, 2019.
8. Kim, Tae (May 21, 2018). "Epic makes 'Fortnite' biggest esport in the world with $100 million in prize money". CNBC. Archived from the original on July 15, 2018. Retrieved July 15, 2018.
9. Webster, Andrew (February 22, 2019). "Fortnite's $30 million World Cup final is happening in July". The Verge. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved February 22, 2019.
10. Vincent, Brittany. "The next World Cup? Fortnite. Here's everything you need to know". NBC News. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
11. Webster, Andrew (April 30, 2020). "There won't be a Fortnite World Cup in 2020". The Verge. Retrieved April 30, 2020.
12. "Fortnite World Cup 2019 Scoring: Point System". Daily Esports. 2019-04-13. Retrieved 2019-12-26.
13. "Fortnite World Cup Finals". Epic Games. July 28, 2019. Retrieved Nov 23, 2019.
14. Khan, Zoya (July 28, 2019). "Teen Wins $3 Million Prize in First Fortnite World Cup Tournament". Bloomberg L.P. Retrieved July 28, 2019.
15. Goslin, Austen (2019-05-15). "Here are all the players for the 2019 Fortnite celebrity Pro-Am". Polygon. Retrieved 2020-03-05.
16. Liao, Shannon (July 27, 2019). "Fortnite World Cup: Here's who won the celebrity tournament". CNN.
17. MacLeod, Riley (July 30, 2019). "The Fortnite World Cup Was A Kids' Paradise". Kotaku. Retrieved July 30, 2019.
18. Chalk, Andy (July 31, 2019). "The Fortnite World Cup drew more than 2.3 million concurrent viewers". PC Gamer. Retrieved July 31, 2019.
19. Asmelash, Leah (August 13, 2019). "Teen Fortnite World Champion Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf was 'swatted' during a livestream". CNN. Retrieved September 23, 2019.