Fortnite: Battle Royale made its grand entrance into the world of official esports tonight. 50 celebrities and 50 pro streamers competed in a charity tournament that offered a total prize pool of $3 million, blasting each other in Fortnite fashion until only one-- or two-- remained. There were three matches in total: one solo and one duo warmup map, with the final game for the prize saved for the end. All three provided for some tense, exciting moments, though, all the way to the final moments of the main event.
Check out Paul Tassi for a rundown of who won each round, and how they did it.
You can see the complete match on the Youtube replay below. There was a lengthy pre-show and plenty of commentary in between matches when you watched it in in real time, but in the replay you can distill it down to its essential moments. There's also a ton of post-show in there at the end.
The first match begins at about 1:07:00, the second at 1:48:00 and the third at about 2:24:00.
As it turns out, Fortnite makes an excellent esport for a few reasons. For one thing, the basic idea is straightforward: each player has access to the same essential abilities and items, and it's actually pretty easy to follow the action with even the most complex builds and plays. The wide-open map helps a lot with this: other shooters take place in tight corridors that make it more difficult or confusing to pull out to wide shots that can give you an idea of the action, but Fortnite handles it with aplomb. The pacing works to its advantage as well: most matches consist of long lulls of building, looting and strategic moment interspersed with intense action, and it makes for a good spectating rhythm.
That downtime can get a little exhausting, however, and I'll be interested to see how the game handles it in the future. I could see two things helping out with that: for one thing, casters are going to get better at managing the game as things go on, and the right sort of commentary with wide angles and maybe some football-style marker work could help give people an idea of what's going on during quiet moments. You could also just run the whole thing in blitz mode, where there's nary a moment to relax.
Regardless, I'm calling this one a win for Epic and Fortnite, and excited to see how this progresses.
