Fortnite World Cup details revealed with $30 million prize pool

Epic Games has revealed more details on its previously-announced Fortnite World Cup, and it’ll boast a $30 million (£23 million) prize pool.

Taking place over July 26-28th, 100 solo players and 50 duos will head to New York City to compete in the event. Each of the players who take part are guaranteed at least $50,000 (£38,380.75) in winnings.

The news comes from an esports update from Epic Games, where it also explained how it planned on giving away much of its pledged $100 million prize pot for the 2019 season. There will be 10 weekly online qualifiers for the World Cup starting April 13th, with $1,000,000 (£767,305) on the line in each of them.

Epic Games will continue to dish out $1,000,000 (£767,305) each week through to the end of the year through separate tournaments, which will “feature a wider variety of modes and formats”. The developer will also “provide tournament tools and prizing to select partners” to improve the presence of Fortnite esports in further countries and regions.

The Fortnite World Cup was first announced during Fortnite’s ProAm event at E3 in June last year. Epic Games first pledged to distribute $100 million in tournament winnings last May, alongside releasing details on the game’s first ever official esports push.

The largest prize in esports to date came from Dota 2’s “The International 8” which saw OG take home $11,234,158 in prize money (of a total $25,532,177), working out at over $2,000,000 a player. Epic has now smashed that out of the water, with a staggering $3,000,000 guaranteed to the winner of the solo discipline.

Esports Insider says: Epic Games certainly isn’t messing about when it comes to Fortnite’s esports presence. While people may look down their nose at the game or straight-up ridicule its competitive efforts, this is the biggest prize pool an esports event has ever had and displays Epic Games’ dedication towards the industry. $50,000 can genuinely alter peoples’ lives for the better and that’s the minimum winnings from the World Cup – incredible!

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