Epic Games has announced that Fortnite will soon be getting in-game tournaments, another step toward the company’s attempts to provide an esports foundation for the battle royale shooter. Moreover, the in-game tournaments don’t segregate players based on control types, so players using a mouse, a controller, or even a touchscreen will all be competing with each other.
The idea, Epic explains in a blog post, is to get a bunch of players together online and score points based on kills or high placements within matches. Play well and don’t coward out at the same time to rocket to the top of the tournament scene. Players who get to the end win a shiny pin, which will theoretically award them entry into advanced tournaments down the line.
The tournaments will take place through the game client at scheduled times, putting players in multiple matches over the course of hours and matchmaking them based on score. So players who do well will start moving up to face tougher opponents, while those who are struggling will find an easier time over the course of matches.
As mentioned, the tournaments won’t separate people on different versions or control schemes. This means the guy who took you out might have been using a controller or their iPhone when you were using a keyboard and mouse. Epic says that they came to this decision after witnessing high-level play among various different versions of Fortnite and seeing that the best players can keep up and exceed their PC brethren.
The first tournament begins in alpha form tomorrow, letting players try their hand against the rest of the world’s Fortnite players soon. Here’s a full list of the tournament dates below, with full timing information available within the client itself as it varies by region.
- Alpha Tournament (Solo)
- Dates: October 16 – October 21
- Description: Participate in the first in-game tournament, spanning across several days of daily competition!
- Beta Tournament (Duo)
- Dates: October 23 – October 25
- Description: Grab a friend and take on the world – until you are the last two left.
- Friday Night Fortnite (Squad)
- Dates: October 19 – November 30
- Description: Join your friends every Friday and kick off your weekend with some exciting Squad action.
- Salty Springs Cup (Solo)
- Dates: October 27 – October 31
- Description: One week and three attempts to prove you’re the saltiest that Salty Springs has to offer.
- Tomato Temple Cup (Duo)
- Dates: October 28 – November 1
- Description: Become legends of the Tomato Temple Cup.
To play, you must opt-in for crossplay first, otherwise you won’t be getting the full pool of possible players. Fortnite is the vanguard of crossplay on consoles, being the first (and thus far only) game to allow it on PlayStation 4 and being an exception to Nintendo’s online play membership service.
What do you think? Is Epic making the right call having all the control types play together? Or is that the only way to actually be fair? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Game Informer Fortnite Adding In-Game Tournaments, No Separation Between Control Types