Fortnite Competitive Announcement: $10,000,000 tournament and the BRUTE is here to stay

Today, August 9, Epic released a competitive update blog post that announced the Fortnite Champion Series, a statement on the BRUTE, and more information about competitive payments.

We're living in the post-World Cup Fortnite era, and Epic is already taking steps to generate excitement about their next competitive format.

They made several announcements about the Season X competitive schedule on their blog on August 9.

More importantly to many players, the doubled-down on the implementation of the BRUTE across all modes.

Fortnite Champion Series

We'll start with the positive. Epic will be hosting a $10,000,000 tournament for Fortnite players.

The qualifications will start on August 17 and will have a similar format to that of the World Cup qualifiers. The only difference is that it will be Trios this time around.

The way you can qualify is a bit different as well, as the Fortnite team explains:

"Series Points will be awarded based on each team’s final placement every week during the FNCS to determine team placement on the Series Leaderboard. The top performers on this leaderboard will also advance to the Season Finals. This format values consistency over the course of the season, but still rewards the outstanding performance players make when competing in individual weeks."

This way, teams who constantly place in the top-five have a chance to qualify, rather than taking the top few teams each week.

Epic will also be hosting Solo and Trio Cash Cups over the course of the season.

The BRUTE

Now, for what many of you came here for: the BRUTE update. In short, Epic is doubling-down on the BRUTE implementation. They're adding a laser so you can see when the BRUTE is looking at you but made no mention of any nerf apart from that.

"We’ve been monitoring the impact of the B.R.U.T.E. in gameplay and are investigating ways to enhance combat feedback when interacting with the vehicle. In v10.10, we will add a targeting laser that will show the direction the B.R.U.T.E. is aiming its rockets while they are being charged. This laser will have directional audio to help indicate when it’s being pointed at you, even if you’re behind a structure. We’ve also fixed a few mobility bugs that was allowing players to exploit its boost mechanic.

The B.R.U.T.E. remains within the core game modes (Solo, Duos, and Squads), select Limited Time Modes, and in competitive Arena and Tournament play. We’ll communicate any future iterations to the vehicle as we’re continuing to investigate a few more areas where we can improve combat interactions."

All together now: S-M-H

Other Updates

Epic added some other updates with this post as well, including a fix to a bug that had Arena Mode using the Season 9 brackets rather than the Season 10 brackets.

They patched this, which may increase queue times but will lead to a more positive experience overall - minus the fact that the BRUTE is still in the game.

You can take a look at the payment update and other information on the official blog post here.

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