Is Friday Fortnite over? The weekly Fortnite event that brings top players together to compete in a weekly Fortnite: Battle Royale tournament may soon be over because Epic Games, the maker of Fortnite, has revamped its Summer Skirmish weekly Fortnite event and increased the prize pool to attract more players.
Friday Fortnite built a following by bringing together Fortnite gamers and streamers from around the world to compete in fast-paced matches to rack up the most “kills” and to stay alive to win prize money. The weekly online competition is hosted by UMG Gaming and organized by YouTube content creator Keemstar. Dot Esports reports that Keemstar claims that the Friday Fortnite event brings in close to 10 million unique visitors each event.
Epic Games, the creator of the hottest game in the world right now, recently launched the Fortnite Summer Skirmish series — the company’s own weekly esports tournament where player battle in a duo’s tournament to win $250,000. The first event took place on July 14, and according to Fortnite gamers and streamers, it was a disaster. When Summer Skirmish launched, there were lagging issues in gameplay causing frustration to gamers and viewers around the world.
According to Forbes, Epic Games hosted the tournament on North America servers but had gamers playing from around the world causing issues with gameplay. On top of the technical issues causing people to lose, Fortnite gamers were not really competing during the tournament because everyone was trying to hide or stay in safe places to avoid being killed so they could win. Overall, there wasn’t a lot of action and it caused the game to feel dull.
Epic Games promised to improve on last weeks technical issues by possibly adding more servers to improve gameplay. The company also said Summer Skirmish said the prize pool for the tournament is now $500,000. Summer Skirmish officially launched on Saturday, but now the revamped Fortnite two-day esports tournament will now take place on Friday and Saturday, forcing the Friday Fortnite event to take a backseat to Epic Games’ Summer Skirmish event because of the larger prize pool.
The #SummerSkirmish series picks back up this Friday, July 20, at 5PM ET (21:00 GMT) and on Saturday, July 21, at 1PM ET (17:00 GMT).
Two days of competition, $1,000,000 on the line! Different competitors each day.https://t.co/6fxouqLhn4 pic.twitter.com/lGFZy1JuVW
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) July 19, 2018
Friday Fortnite organizer Keemstar took to Twitter to express his feelings about Epic Games’ move host Fortnite tournaments on the same day as his tournament. In his statement, he says he’s alright with moving Friday Fortnite to Sunday but wasn’t aware that Epic Games’ Summer Skirmish will also take place this Friday, July 20 at the same time as Friday Fortnite.
Epic Games moves Summer Skirmish to same day as Friday Fortnite
Hi @EpicGames pic.twitter.com/BI9yfXbH1I
— KEEM ? (@KEEMSTAR) July 18, 2018
Keemstar says Friday Fortnite will take place at the exact same time as Summer Skirmish, so it will be interesting to see how this all pans out.
So, is Friday Fortnite over?
According to Keemstar, Friday Fortnite will still take place this Friday, July 20 despite the fact Summer Skirmish will also take place. This will be the last Friday Fortnite tournament until it gets moved to Sunday.
Because Epic Games is the creator of Fortnite, it has more resources to put together bigger tournaments with higher stakes. However, with higher prize money up for grabs, games can become less about intense competitions and more about staying out of harm’s way to increase the chances of winning big at the Fortnite tournament. There are rumors that Epic Games could change certain aspects of the tournament to force players to be more competitive during matches, but nothing has been confirmed yet.
When does Sunday Fortnite tournament start?
Keemstar says his tournament will move to Sunday starting July 29 at 1 p.m. EST. Until then, players will be able to play and watch the final Friday Fortnite tournament this Friday.
