SAN FRANCISCO, Feb 23 — Ten weekly qualifiers for the 2019 Fortnite World Cup will begin on April 13, with 100 solo players and 50 teams of pairs going forward to the US$30 million (RM122.2 million) finals in New York, July 26-28.

Weekly prize tournaments until the end of the year, ten qualifier weeks running April to June, and a three-day World Cup Final have been announced by Fortnite developer and publisher Epic Games.

The worldwide tournament is open to players aged 13 years old or over, with parental permission required for under-17s, national and local laws notwithstanding.

Epic is dangling a total of US$100 million in cash prizes for qualifying players, weekly winners, and World Cup champions.

Payouts will be distributed broadly, Epic announced in a February 22 update, with US$1 million split between eligible qualifying-round participants.

Some US$30 million is going into the World Cup Finals prize pool, with US$50,000 the minimum payout and the World Cup Solo Champion in line to receive US$3 million.

Then, US$1 million is set aside for weekly tournaments that are to feature "a wider variety of modes and formats to open up the competitive playing field,” eventually accounting for the full 2019 US$100 million prize pool budget.

In addition, the Fortnite World Cup Finals event will also feature "fun custom challenges in different modes and formats,” with the aim of widening its appeal beyond Battle Royale players and, it would seem, into territory inhabited by fans of the game’s building and creative modes.

The US$30 million purse for the Fortnite World Cup Final surpasses that for previous record holder, the Dota 2 International final in 2018, whose fan-funded prize pool reached US$25 million, with US$11 million awarded to the winning team and then split between its five players, manager, coach, and organisation. — AFP-Relaxnews