The Battle Royale Genre has exceeded expectations in esports. Bursting onto the scene with PUBG in 2017, it was soon eclipsed by Fortnite in the following year. The genre sees a lot of streamers and viewership number are constantly topping Twitch charts.

Epic Games recently announced a $100 million prize pool for the development and prize money in Fortnite esports. This is undoubtedly the biggest prize pool announcement ever in the history of esports. It comes at a time when we are witnessing massive growth in the esports industry. But how does this translate into making the Battle Royale Genre esports friendly? Is announcing a huge prize pool enough to facilitate the creation of an esports scene for Battle Royale, specifically Fortnite? What else needs to be done in order to boost the popularity of Fortnite esports?

Fortnite Competitors! Grab your gear, drop in and start training. Since the launch of Fortnite Battle Royale we’ve watched the passion for community competition grow and can’t wait to empower you to battle with the best. In the 2018 – 2019 season, Epic Games will provide $100,000,000 to fund prize pools for Fortnite competitions. We’re getting behind competitive play in a big way, but our approach will be different – we plan to be more inclusive, and focused on the joy of playing and watching the game. Stay tuned for more details about competitive structures and eligible platforms in the weeks ahead!

Ninja: Creating records…. And tournaments

One of the biggest streamers in Fortnite, Richard “Tyler” Blevins, also known as Ninja, is responsible for the huge growth in Fortnite viewership. The positive, non-toxic streamer has seen exponential growth. This also matches the time during which the game’s popularity increased multifold. Currently, he has over seven million followers with an average of 80000 viewers per stream.

Ninja gained almost 50,000 followers between February 22 and March 3rd. This growth rate is unprecedented in Twitch history, but Ninja did not stop there. He proceeded to continue to grow and break new records. He has a star-studded fan following, and he broke Twitch concurrent viewership numbers when he streamed a few hours with rapper Drake. The group which also included NFL rookie JuJu Smith-Schuster and rapper Travis Scott saw 628,000 concurrent viewers. This record is a far distance from the previous record of $388,000.

Ninja Vegas 2018 – The first steps

The Ninja Vegas Fortnite tournament in the Luxor Hotel, Las Vegas was a rousing success. It used a format quite different from traditional esports tournaments. By allowing anyone from the public to join in, it was an inclusive tournament.

The Ninja Vegas tournament was probably one of the first Fortnite tournaments on such a large scale. It was a learning experience not only for tournament organizers but also for the general public. The massive turnout proved that there is interest in Fortnite esports. The twitch stream also generated huge amounts of traffic. Indeed it broke the previous viewership record held by Ninja himself. Being a former professional gamer himself, Ninja’s interest in the esports section of Fortnite is understandable. He is the most successful streamer for Fortnite and easily the biggest name in the game. So he is using his fame and glory to test and successfully implement a functioning tournament structure.

Problems with Fortnite as an esports title

Epic Games’ announcement of a $100 million fund for Fortnite esports is a gamechanger. The amount itself is the biggest ever in esports. Considering Fortnite has a huge player base and a proportionally large viewer base, this announcement is not a big surprise. The implementation, however, will be a tough task for Epic Games.

There are various problems with implementing and running Fortnite as an esports title. They range from viewership problems, production as well as various technical problems on LAN.

What is the perfect tournament format?

Fortnite is a game with 100 players in the server. We still don’t know whether Epic Games will implement a squad system or a solo match system tournament. Irrespective of the format, showcasing the various perspectives is going to be a big problem. How does the production crew prioritize which player to focus? An overview of the map is decent only intermittently, but it cannot be relied on as a good angle. Understanding and solving the spectating problems is probably the biggest hurdle to Battle Royale as an esports segment.

LAN setting

The other problem would be for Tournament organizers who would have to deal with the logistics of having 100 players on LAN. Most of the esports tournaments today have around 5-6 players per team. There are usually two teams competing against each other for an objective. The Battle Royale genre is fundamentally different in this regard. The objective of the entire game is to survive till the very end. This makes the maintenance and establishment of over a 100 Computers on LAN a necessity. With such a huge hardware setup, technical problems are bound to arise consistently. Tournament organizers will be faced with a serious issue in running tournaments smoothly and without problems.

But both these problems are not unsolvable. Organisers can search for the perfect tournament format, of course, it will come at the cost of several failed attempts at first. The other issue is just about the efficiency and ability of Tournament organizers to maintain a good LAN setting. It is definitely not impossible and should not be viewed as a big impediment to Fortnite esports.

Ninja talks about the future of Fortnite esports

The initial period in Fortnite esports is going to face a lot of difficulties. As Epic Games take on a different approach to the esports setting, Fortnite will face periods of imbalance and constant changes. This is important for the game’s development and rise as an esport. Understanding the right balance between the competitive nature of the game as well as the fans’ interest levels are important for the game’s esport survival.

Competitive Fortnite will certainly be interesting to watch. I’d be more into watching solos and duos rather than squads. The key will be making superstars of the sport. Names, personalities etc. But consistency in terms of winning will be difficult due to nature of BR games — Dr DisRespect (@DrDisRespect) April 22, 2018

Fortnite is not built to be an esport. It is a casual and fun way to spend your time. Of course, since the game has developed into such a huge success, there is a big part of the community which wants to see tournaments and esports. Organising tournament is a big part of ensuring continuous interest in the game. So how do the various companies ensure a good performance

“That’s the problem, squads is flawed. I have very well informed Epic of that. If anything, I think the event that I hosted and Ben and CouRage casted, it was proof. It did well, it played well, there were fights the entire time.”

Ninja is taking the lead when it comes to the development of esports in Fortnite. He feels that squads is currently broken and is detrimental to Fortnite esports. He has already conveyed his opinion on the matter to Epic Games. Fortnite will not face the same problems as PUBG if it were to ditch squads for solo matches. The Oakland PUBG tournament saw several players and teams in play, but the actual activity within the game was very minimal. Early stages of Fortnite esports will take a lot of time to exercise the best format and structure. Ninja took the first initiative already and Epic Games’ announcement will pave the way for 2018.

Epic Games will reveal more details at E3

Epic Games has already announced its first self-hosted tournament in June 2018. The Fortnite Pro AM will see 50 streamers pair up with 50 celebrities. The total prize money for the tournament is $3 million. The winning duo will receive $1 million to distribute to a charity of their choice. This is just an exhibition tournament, which will probably see the launch of Fortnite esports.

Downtown Los Angeles! The Battle Bus is en-route to E3 2018 and the whole squad is coming. Join us at the Fortnite booth 2723 in the South Hall of the LA Convention Center, or tune-in to the 100-player Pro-Am featuring your favorite Fortnite pros and celebrities.

EPIC games has already announced a few pairings. They will announce more as the event comes closer.

Be sure to watch this space for further news regarding the Pro-AM tournament and Fortnite esports.

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