Could we see the return of Friday Fortnite kill-race tournaments?

Long-term Fortnite fans are looking for a hit of nostalgia.

Before the days of custom lobbies, Cash Cups and FNCS, the earliest form of Fortnite competition was kill-racing, also referred to as bot-racing. The idea is simple. Two teams load into a public match together, usually landing separately, and try to rack up as many eliminations as possible.

The most famous of these events was Friday Fortnite, a weekly tournament hosted by YouTube star Daniel “Keemstar” Keem. Top Fortnite players, creators and even celebrities took part, with viewership regularly dipping into the millions.

However, when Epic Games began to run their own competitions on the same day, Keemstar decided to cancel rather than force people to pick one or the other. He would later turn his attention to other games, including Minecraft and Call of Duty: Warzone.

Let’s go 1m likes for keemstar to bring Fortnite Friday back, like this post we got this ???????? pic.twitter.com/JREbKj50Bz

— NRG Ronaldo (@StableRonaldo) December 31, 2020

Fast forward to today, and NRG “Ronaldo” has called for the return of this popular series. “How many likes for you to bring back Friday Fortnite?”, he asked Keemstar on Twitter. Keem quickly replied, setting a lofty goal of 1,000,000.

When Ronaldo, who at the time of writing has amassed just under 27,000 likes, tried to bargain for a smaller target, he did not receive a positive response. Keemstar told him, “My gaming events pull millions of views. If you can’t get 1 million likes then Fortnite is dead & it’s not worth my time”.

Whether you agree with Keemstar’s take or not, the future of Fortnite Friday does not look too promising. But that doesn’t mean that this kind of tournament is off the cards all together.

Want to start a weekly kill race tourney with pros.

My plan would be:
-Go intro trios and watch two pros go head to head so it's arena.
- Get 3 pros and go into pub squads.

Put up like a $300 prize pool to the winner.

Swear it'd be god content.

I'd alternate which regions.

— AussieAntics (@AussieAntics) December 31, 2020

Popular content creator and caster “AussieAntics” has stated that he is interested in starting a weekly kill-race event for pro players. The idea has already caught the attention of XTRA Gaming’s “Reet”, who is known for his mesmerizing W-Key playstyle.

Format-wise, Aussie suggested having two pros go head-to-head in Trio Arena, or three players face off in public Squad lobbies. In my eyes, Arena Trios would make more sense, as public matches tend to die out incredibly fast and potentially include AI bots. Regardless, fingers crossed this goes ahead as it is guaranteed to make for an awesome watch.

So, whilst kill-races will hopefully be coming back in one way or another, don’t expect to see the same names that featured in Fortnite Friday. With the skill ceiling being so high, even the best of the best struggle to slay out consistently, and most of these creators would find it hard to keep up.