With the recent conclusion of the Fortnite Summer Skirmish, fans eagerly awaited the next competitive installment of Epic Games’ mega-popular battle royale title. Fortunately, they didn’t have to wait long. In a tweet earlier today, the studio revealed their follow-up tournament, the Fortnite Fall Skirmish. This new series will take place over the course of six weeks with a total of $10 million USD available in prizes.
Unfortunately, this is all we currently know about the event. Season 5 of Fortnite is nearing its end and has less than three weeks remaining. In their tweet, Epic confirmed that new details will be revealed later this week. This does not mean that the skirmish will start soon, however. It’s reasonable that the new Fall Skirmish will welcome the advent of Season 6 and a new era of Fortnite.
The weather may be cooling down, but the battle is heating up 🍂🔥. Fall Skirmish starts soon, with $10,000,000 awarded across 6 weeks. Stay tuned for major details dropping later this week!
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) September 10, 2018
Wrapping up the Summer Skirmish
By comparison, the Fortnite Summer Skirmish was an eight-week-long event with a total of $8 million USD awarded. Most recently, MorgausseTV took the final Victory Royale and over $225,000 during the Grand Finals at PAX West. As the competitive battle royale scene is still in its infancy, Epic’s inaugural series showcased the studio’s willingness to experiment. Each week featured a different game format, using different rulesets and contestants. Some were disastrous, while others went off without a hitch. For now, we don’t know if the Fall Skirmish will also utilize this revolving format.
In case you’re just now catching up with the Fortnite craze, both the Summer and Fall Skirmish are predecessors to Epic’s big event, the 2019 Fortnite World Cup. While the details for this are still far away, we can expect the upcoming Fall Skirmish to further refine how the game is played and viewed as an esport. Epic continues to modify their game to better suit both the audience and players for competitive play. The addition of the new spectating mode, for example, streamlined the viewing experience for the final weeks of the Summer Skirmish.
Furthermore, Epic has teased at a proper competitive mode for months now. Releasing this mode at the start of Season 6 would be a great incentive for new players to become involved with the competitive circuit.
The importance of Fortnite Season 6 and the Fall Skirmish
Furthermore, this upcoming season and competitive series come at a crucial time for the game. Up until now, Fortnite has easily eclipsed its competition within the battle royale genre. Counterparts such as H1Z1 and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds can’t quite match the meteoric popularity levels of Fortnite. Meanwhile, smaller studios have shuttered their doors despite attempts to cash-in on the current craze.
However, new contenders arrive in a few short weeks. The open beta for Call of Duty Black Ops 4‘s battle royale mode, Blackout, went live today, and a number of popular Fortnite streamers took a break from Fortnite to try Treyarch’s latest entry. Of course, this isn’t anything new, as streamers also flocked to Realm Royale when it first debuted. Despite the initial bump in popularity, its playerbase has since dwindled, while Fortnite‘s continues to grow. We’ve yet to get our hands on Battlefield V‘s battle royale mode, but that should also provide healthy competition for Fortnite.
Regardless of the details for the Fall Skirmish, it’s exciting to see Epic continuing the competitive trajectory for Fortnite. What are your hopes for this upcoming tournament? Are there any elements you saw during the Summer Skirmish that you want to carry over? Any players or match-ups you’d like to see return? Sound off in the comments below and we’ll report once more information is available.
