Epic Games cancels Fortnite World Cup due to coronavirus pandemic
03 May, 2020
The Fortnite World Cup is the latest event to be cancelled in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Epic Games - the developer behind the hugely popular video game - cited health issues in addition to difficulties in running an event of the scale while employees were working at home.
The in-person tournament brings together among the best players from all over the world, and server distances don't let such a competition happen in an online setting. The 2020 Fortnite World Cup was slated to occur in July, and would’ve marked the next installment of the function.
“For the others of 2020, all Fortnite competitions will be held online,” Epic Games said on Twitter. “Because of the limitations of cross region online competition, there will never be a Fortnite World Cup in 2020.”
"We don't know whenever a go back to large, global, in-person events will be practical, but we're hopeful to be able to put on some form of Fortnite World Cup in 2021," the overall game developer said.
The inaugural Fortnite World Cup - which saw a lot more than 2 million concurrent YouTube views - occurred at Arthur Ashe Stadium in NEW YORK last year. It saw an impressive $40 million prize pool being distributed to top players. This included the $3 million prize for the solo tournament champion, which was won by Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf. The 16 year-old beat out a number of notable placer in attendance including members of the FaZe Clan, Ninja, and Dr Lupo.
However, Epic Games is continuing its online schedule as planned. The other day, it announced the launch of the Fortnite Champion Series Invitational, a solos competition with a prize pool of $2 million that is set to get started on Thursday, May 7.
A record-setting online concert series by US rapper Travis Scott was also held within Fortnite’s game world last week. A lot more than 12.3 million players logged on the first day of the concert on April 23, subsequent show times saw a lot more than 28 million unique visitors take part in the 15-minute concert experience.
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