No Surprise: Epic Cancels Upcoming ‘Fortnite’ World Cup Due To Rona

Well, this is a shocker *sarcastic voice* Epic has announced that there will be no Fortnite World Cup this year, and you already know why.

It’s no secret the COVID-19 pandemic has greatly when it comes to physical tournaments. Epic’s World Cup is the latest victim. The company announced that it was canceling the event and moving all other competitions online except for the World Cup due to “limitations of cross-region online competition,” shelving the idea of having the tournament take place online.

Epic will instead focus on third-party events, broadcasts, FNCS, and Cash Cups.

“Physical Events – For the rest of 2020, all Fortnite competitions will be held online. Due to the limitations of cross-region online competition, there will not be a Fortnite World Cup in 2020.”

“We don’t know when a return 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. In the meantime, we have more info about online events with FNCS, Cash Cups, 3rd Party Events, and Broadcasts.”

Epic remains “hopeful” that the Fortnite World Cup will return in 2021, but not having this latest news is a big blow to Epic’s eSports roadmap for the year being that it is the company’s marquee event. Last year, the event took place at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Flushing, New York, and filled the venue’s 23,700 seats. An astounding  2.3 concurrent million viewers watched Kyle Giersdorf, a 16-year-old competitive Fortnite player, take him $3 million on YouTube and Twitch.

So we are sure Epic was deeply disappointed when they made this announcement.

—

Photo: Mike Stobe / Getty