Fortnite World Cup Esports Tournament Boasts $100 Million Prize Pool

Epic Games has announced the details of its Fortnite World Cup, including a whopping $100 million prize pool for the 2019 season. That chunk of money will be split among several prizes, with the largest single cash prize coming in at $3 million.

First, there will be 10 weekly Online Open qualifiers running from April 13 to June 16. Every week the company will distribute $1 million broadly among the top players. Then, the top 100 Solo players and top 50 Duos teams will take part in the World Cup Finals in New York City from July 26-28. That event will distribute $30 million. Each player will win at least $50,000 and the Solo World Champion will win $3 million. Plus, $1 million in weekly tournaments will continue through the end of the year.

Epic notes that to compete you need to be at least 13 years old, and players between 13-17 need a parent or guardian's permission. Players also need to be in good standing without any violations on their current or previous accounts.

Recently Fortnite has gotten a new challenger in the battle royale space with the release of Apex Legends, which quickly grew an audience. Epic Games pointed out that Fortnite is still doing fine for itself too, setting a new record for peak concurrent players.

Still, Fortnite appears to be shoring up its defenses against the new challenger. With Season 8 approaching, Epic announced that you can earn the Battle Pass for free by taking part in Overtime challenges. That was interpreted as a sign that the company is attempting to retain its users by giving them a reason to put their time into Fortnite. A major tournament with tons of cash on the line could also help entice players to stick around.