Fortnite World Cup: here's when it starts and how to compete

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Ten weeks of tournaments with a $10 million prize pool

The Fortnite World Cup will kick off on Saturday, April 13 with the first of ten online qualifier weekends, Epic announced. These qualifiers will be open to all players who are at least 13 years old (or older, depending on their region) and have a Fortnite account that's at least level 15. The qualifiers will alternate between solo and duo modes every week. Here's the full schedule: 

In order to compete, you'll need to unlock the Fortnite World Cup Online Open tournaments by playing Arena, the new ranked-like mode coming in Fortnite update v8.20. "If you can climb to the top, you’ll unlock access to the Fortnite World Cup Online Open tournaments," Epic said. 

"Every Saturday, players who have unlocked the Online Open will have a designated three-hour window of time (according to server region) to play in up to ten matches and score points," Epic explained. "At the conclusion of the three-hour window, the top 3,000 players in each server region will advance to the Online Open Finals that Sunday (the following day)." 

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To recap, you'll need to qualify for the Online Semi-Finals by climbing in Arena mode. After that, you'll need to compete for three hours every Saturday in order to qualify for the Online Open Finals, which throws the top 3,000 players into another three-hour tournament with a $1 million prize pool. These tournaments and their qualifiers will use the following scoring system: 

Solos

  •  Victory Royale: 10 points 
  •  2nd - 5th place: 7 points 
  •  6th - 15th place: 5 points 
  •  16th - 25th place: 3 points 
  •  Eliminations: 1 point each 

Duos

  •  Victory Royale: 10 points 
  •  2nd - 3rd: 7 points 
  •  4th - 7th: 5 points 
  •  8th - 12th: 3 points 
  •  Eliminations: 1 point each  

If you're planning to compete with a buddy, remember that you can't change your duos partner during the semi-finals or finals. However, as Epic clarified, "players can switch duos partners from week to week." 

At the end of these qualifiers, from July 26 - 28, the Fortnite World Cup Finals will whisk the top players from all ten weeks to New York for a $30 million tournament. Fortnite Creative will also play a part in the Fortnite World Cup, but Epic has yet to reveal how it will fit in. 

Here are 21 Fortnite tips to help you claim that coveted Victory Royale. 

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.