It seems to have been a long time coming, but we finally have some details about the plans Epic Games are drawing up for Fortnite esports. The Fortnite World Cup will be a competition for solo players and two-person teams, but there won't be any squads (at least for this competition). We also know that qualifiers for the event are due to start in a few months, entry into the competition will be merit based and organisations won't be able to buy their spot.

With qualifiers coming up, now is the time to start learning about the world of Fortnite esports. Despite the lack of big tournaments which feature the best players in the world (and not just YouTubers and influencers) there are already a number of teams which have established themselves towards the top of the Fortnite esports scene. But some are yet to finalise rosters, some haven’t confirmed if they plan on competing in events (such as the FWC) and there’s a chance some teams won’t qualify for the main event.

Here are the teams to watch in the Fortnite World Cup – they’ll almost certainly be the ones battling it out in the later stages of the competition.

1. TSM

Even if you know nothing about the Fortnite esports scene, there’s a decent chance you know something about TSM’s Fortnite roster. The star of the show is undoubtedly team captain Ali ‘Myth’ Kabbani, who as well as being one of the best players in the world, is perhaps the second biggest Fortnite streamer in the West, sitting just behind Ninja on Twitch. Myth regularly brings in 50,000 or more concurrent viewers to his streams, making him one of the biggest names in the scene.

Darryle ‘Hamlinz’ Hamlin, Juan ‘CaMiLLs’ Camilla and Daequan ‘Daequan’ Loco join Myth on the roster and the team already has a house in California, making them one of the first Fortnite teams to live together. This should mean they improve as a team much quicker than other teams across the world, and that could be quite worrying to other rosters because they're already one of the best teams out there.

Of course, as with most of these rosters, they’ll have to find a way of splitting up into pairs for the World Cup, as squads won’t feature, but again it seems TSM already have a solid idea of how that will work because Myth and Hamlinz are regular partners in the Friday Fortnite tournaments and have even managed to win one as a pair. They're also the two players on the roster with the most wins.

Some teams still need to find a fourth player © Epic Games

2. Cloud9

Cloud9 are one of the biggest orgs in esports and they have a history of getting into new titles early. But rarely have they ever gone as big as they have done with Fortnite because instead of just signing one team of top players, they have three. Cloud9 Blue and White are both North American rosters, while Cloud9 Korea is, unsurprisingly, a Korean roster making C9 one of the only Western orgs with Korean Fortnite players.

While none of the players on C9 are as well known as TSM’s Myth, there’s a lot of potential here. The two NA squads are full of players who have a lot of potential and as we’ve seen in other esports, having multiple teams that can work together in private can massively improve them all. But it’s the Korean team that’s perhaps the most interesting: we don’t know too much about them, but if history tells us anything it’s we should always consider a Korean team as a contender.

3. Lightning Pandas

While the other teams on this list are the big esports organisations picking up top teams, this is a slightly different story. The Lightning Pandas are a smaller org that currently has a top Call of Duty team and some top FIFA players, but clearly aren't the same size as a C9 or TSM. Though they have managed to signed three of the best Fortnite players in the world, and despite still searching for a fourth player, there’s no doubt that this combination of players is up there with the very best in the world.

At the time of writing, Stefan ‘Zaxi’ Østergaard is ranked 15th in the world on FortniteTracker.com, Merticariu ‘Merti’ Catalin is 22nd and Nikolaj ‘Tranq’ Toft is 38th, making this one of the highest rated trios out there. Of course they still need to find a fourth, but with this quality of player, almost every free agent out there will be wanting to team up with them.

When it comes to raw skill, this team is the one to watch: few can compare to their abilities and the players are used to winning almost every game they play. ForniteTracker’s stats show that Zaxi has a ridiculous 56 percent win rate in Season Four and is still over a 50 percent win rate across all seasons, meaning winning is something that comes naturally to him.

4. Team Secret

When it comes to interesting stories, Team Secret certainly have one of the best. Kyle ‘Mongraal’ Jackson signed with the team when he was just 13 years old, making him the youngest Fortnite pro player out there. This news was even covered by the BBC and instantly made Team Secret a fan favourite for UK fans.

The rest of the roster features Mats ‘Sak0ner’ Sørum, Domeniks ‘Domentos’ Bunts and Michael ‘VNHL’ Gustad, all capable players who have shown a lot of promise. There’s no doubt that this team is up there in terms of skill, but they have the advantage of having one of the best storylines in the scene.

This could all end in disaster if Epic add an age restriction to competitions like some other esports. There’s a good chance that if they did that, the age chosen would be 16 or 18 and Mongraal wouldn’t be able to play in the World Cup, which would be less than ideal. But if that doesn’t happen we could easily see a young teen on stage at the FWC and that would be quite the story.