Epic announces $20,000,000+ prize pool for 2021 & confirms no more console FNCS

Fortnite developer Epic Games just dropped a huge blog post detailing FNCS prizing, format changes and more. There’s a lot of information to take in, so let’s break down the highlights.

Prize Pools

In 2021, there will be four FNCS seasons, each with its own $3,000,000 prize pot. Additionally, a further $8,000,000 will be up for grabs for top performing FNCS players who qualify for special mid and end of year competitions.

This money will be distributed between regions based on recent competitive participation and game population.

The total figure for FNCS related prizing clocks in at $20,000,000, up $3,000,000 compared to last year. However, this is not the full amount dedicated to competitive, and even more will be available through regular Cash Cups and individual tournaments.

Console Competition

Going forward, the FNCS will become a single, cross-platform event. Whilst framed as an opportunity to play with teammates on multiple platforms, this will no doubt be heart-breaking news to many PlayStation, Xbox and Mobile users.

Realistically though, the recent release of next-gen consoles supporting 120 FPS gameplay made this decision almost inevitable. People with older devices would be at a similar disadvantage competing against PS5 and Xbox Series X players as they would against those on PC.

The FNCS is intended to be the premier tier of Fortnite competition, and by making it cross-platform Epic is able to offer a bigger prize pool and better reward those at the very top.

Whatever your opinion on the topic, this is not the end of platform-specific Fortnite. “We’ll continue to add more console exclusive tournaments in 2021 with dedicated prizing”, explained the blog post.

More Cash Cups

Having heard feedback regarding the current lack of events, Epic will be increasing the number of Cash Cups taking place this season.

least amount of tournaments we have ever had with the least amount of money, with the game being the least fun as i can remember ??

— benjyfishy (@benjyfishy) January 10, 2021

Weekly “Solo Saturdays” Cash Cups will begin shortly, giving players in Champion division another chance to compete for money and to prove themselves as a Solo. Furthermore, Monday’s Trio Cash Cups will now run weekly, rather than bi-weekly.

To fund these additional competitions, prizing has been removed from the LTM tournaments, which will now occur on Sundays.

This update has been very well-received by the competitive community and despite the fact that in person events have been ruled out, it looks like we are on track for an exciting 2021.