‘Fortnite’ Has Just Cancelled Its 2020 World Cup Due To COVID-19

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - JULY 28: Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf celebrates after winning the Fortnite World ... [+] Cup solo final at Arthur Ashe Stadium on July 28, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images)

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Fortnite has just cancelled what should have been its biggest esports event of the year, the 2020 World Cup.

Announced on Twitter yesterday, Epic said that while Fortnite competitions will continue throughout the year, they will all be online. The exception to that is the Fortnite World Cup itself, the largest event, as Epic does not believe the “limitations of cross-region online competition” will allow that to move forward as an online event.

This is not a huge surprise, given that qualifiers for the World Cup should have already started, as they began in April last year. The 2019 Fortnite World Cup finals were at the end of July, but given the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s unlikely that most if any large-scale stadium-based events, be they sports games, concerts or esports finals will be a good idea just three months from now. Hence the cancellation.

The 2019 Fortnite World Cup was held in the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City which seats 23,000, and over 2 million concurrent viewers watched the finals live. Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf took home first place and the largest share of the $30 million prize pool. All in all, it was a record-setting event in many ways.

NEW YORK - JULY 27: Crowd of esports fans witness the Fortnite World Cup at Arthur Ashe Stadium on ... [+] July 27, 2019 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City. (Photo by Eric Ananmalay/ESPAT Media/Getty Images)

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Epic does not want to let the Fortnite competitive scene die even if the World Cup is cancelled. Alongside this announcement they talked about Cash Cups, online-only third party events and the Fortnite Championship Series which will all continue on this year.

Fortnite will not be the last game to cancel its big, in-person events, but it does probably hurt the game more than others. Epic has the money to throw around for huge prize pools and well-produced enormous stadium events like last year’s World Cup, but now that advantage is negated, which could allow other games like Valorant to expand their reach as everything moves online-only.

Epic has said that they hope that a physical Fortnite World Cup will return in 2021, but like everything else, we don’t really know what’s going to happen or not happen with the pandemic as the world begins to slowly re-open. In the US, some states are starting the first stages of lifting lockdowns, but even if we get to a point where restaurants and gyms reopen eventually, large, crowded events like sports matches and concerts will likely not return en masse for the rest of this year, at least.

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