Epic Games push back World Cup qualifiers after community backlash

Alan Bernal

Epic Games have announced that the Fortnite World Cup Semi-Finals and Grand Finals will be pushed back to a new date after numerous complaints from pros started to mount.

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Fortnite Battle Royale pros have a packed month of June when it comes to tournaments with big prize pools. The Celebrity Pro-Am and the last weeks of World Cup qualifiers for duos were in danger of overlapping.

Pro player Dennis ‘Cloak’ Lepore pointed out that the conflicting schedules might have made some people choose between attending the Summer Block Party tournament or taking their last shot at qualifying for the Fortnite World Cup Finals in New York City.

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In a June 5 announcement, the Fortnite World Cup organizers made a change to the schedule which will hopefully alleviate any of the concerns that people might have had going into the tournament season.

“Hey Fortnite World Cup Competitors,” Producer at Epic Games Matt ‘Loomin’ Layman said. “We are rescheduling the Week 10 Fortnite World Cup Online Open. The Semi-Finals will now take place on Thursday, June 20th. The Finals will take place on Friday, June 21st.”

Moreover, Loomin said that the “start time for each region will begin one hour later than the regular scheduled tournaments,” so players will want to keep that in mind to show up on time.

Finally, the prize pool for Week 9 and Week 10 will be doubling to a total of $2,000,000. But it’s important to note that the schedule and timing for Week 9 will stay the same.

Nick Statt via The VergeThe Fortnite Battle Royale community were loud about their concerns that the World Cup qualifiers and Pro-Am were overlapping.
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Ninja, Cloak and more had major issues with Fortnite World Cup scheduling

During his May 3 stream, the world’s most famous gamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins expressed his ire against scheduling and even explained why he wanted out of the Pro-Am.

“I’m trying to get out of it,” the Detroit native said. “It’s a whole thing dude. I’m not trying to get out of it, I still want to be a part of it, but in a way that I can still play on Sunday.”

Cloak wasn’t agreeing with the scheduling either, as he and many others pointed out the conflicts between the two events on social medias.

Now that Epic Games have pushed back the dates of their qualifiers, hopefully that’ll mean the pros will be able to lock in and perform their best on both events.

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About The Author

Alan is a former staff writer for Dexerto based in Southern California who covered esports, internet culture, and the broader games/streaming industry. He is a CSUF Alum with a B.A. in Journalism. He's reported on sports medicine, emerging technology, and local community issues. Got a tip or want to talk?