Aussies could win big at Fortnite championship

Fortnite has announced a new championship series that could see Australians winning a share of almost $15 million.

Epic Games, the publisher behind hit free-to-play game Fortnite, has announced a new championship series for the game in which Australians could win a share of almost $15 million.

The 2023 Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) will run over the course of 2023, and will have a new “Major” structure including an in-person championship event. The series will start on February 2, 2023.

The new structure will have players competing in pairs, called ‘duos’ in-game, earning points for the competition throughout 2023. The series will culminate in an in-person event in Copenhagen, Denmark, where 75 duos from around the globe will compete, including five duos from Australia.

The FNCS Global Championship in Denmark will have a total prize pool of almost $6 million, with three Major tournaments throughout the year each having a prize pool of almost $3 million.

Fortnite has a number of high-profile crossovers, including those for Star Wars and Indiana Jones. Picture: Epic Games

Players from Australia, New Zealand, and the rest of Oceania will qualify for the championship finals at these major events, with one duo qualifying for each of the first two majors, and two duos qualifying in the third major event. The final duo will qualify during a Last Chance Major event.

The Fortnite Championship Series will be available to watch live across a number of platforms, including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Tiktok, Facebook, and Fortnite’s own website.

In a curious addition, players will even be able to watch championship series matches within Fortnite itself, by inputting an island code in-game that will take players to an area where the video feed will be displayed.

It was recently hinted that Fortnite might return to iPhones this year, after being taken off the iOS App Store in 2020.

The game was removed from Apple’s storefronts after it implemented an unapproved payment system, bypassing Apple’s own payment system, a violation of the developer terms of service.

The game recently introduced child-friendly accounts too, after being fined a record amount by the US Federal Trade Commission over breaches of child privacy laws.

The new accounts require children under the age of 13 to get permission from parents to use many of Fortnite’s features, such as in-game chat, V-Bucks purchases, and viewing custom display names.

Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.