Fortnite Champion Series will have $10 million prize pool
There's also more ways to get into the series finals for season 10.
- I've been covering technology and mobile for 12 years, first as a telecommunications reporter and assistant editor at ZDNet in Australia, then as CNET's West Coast head of breaking news, and now in the Thought Leadership team.
The Fortnite Champion Series will have more than $10 million in prize money up for grabs, Epic Games said Friday. The FNCS also comes with more ways to get to the season finals, the company said. The competition is set to kick off Aug. 17, with the finals running Sep. 20-22.
Fortnite, one of the all-time most popular free-to-play games on consoles, launched in 2018 and became a cultural phenomenon, raking in $3 billion for developer Epic Games across all platforms that year. Last month, a 16-year-old won $3 million playing in the Fornite World Cup, with 2 million viewers watching.
You can get to the season 10 finals via the standard three-round Trios event each weekend for the next five weeks, with the top teams in each server region advancing. The new path to the finals will be through scoring Series Points, which Epic Games said "will be awarded based on each team's final placement every week."
According to Epic Games, this will reward consistency throughout the season, and also outstanding performance when competing each week.
Epic will also give away prizes in Solo and Trios Cash Cups each Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
The Fortnite Brute will remain for now, but Epic will be monitoring the impact in gameplay. For version 10.10, the company is also adding a laser to show which direction Brute is aiming its rockets while they're being charged.
"This laser will have directional audio to help indicate when it's being pointed at you, even if you're behind a structure," Epic Games said.
