Battle Royale games have become a large part of the consumer video game market. PLAYERUNKNOWN’s Battlegrounds bursted onto the scene in the latter half of 2017 and brought the genre further into the spotlight than its predecessors. It gained traction with many players across the world and sparked its own esports scene. Many people have conflicting opinions about the genre as two core elements of the game, the circle and loot dropping, are inconsistent and random. Fortnite also contains both elements as well, but has more hype and higher expectations due to the accessibility of the game and the streamers associated with it.

The Fortnite Pro Am 2018 tournament at E3 this year will be the most important event for the game yet. With 100 celebrities and personalities taking the stage, it is assumed to be one of the most watched events this year. Audiences across the globe will be tuning in to see their favorite stars duke it out on stage to determine which charity the 3 million dollar prize pool will be donated to. The 3 million dollars Epic is donating does not come out of the 100 million dollar pool for their competitive scene for the 2018-2019 season.

This tournament is great for Fortnite’s publicity, however Epic’s system of continually updating may have an effect on the gameplay. The game constantly has updates and some casual players may see a lack of familiarity in the game. Bounce Traps, the removal of jetpacks, and other tweaks to gameplay have already been announced. For entertainment purposes, these updates are great. However, if Fortnite is trying to make a statement that their game will be “esports ready” they will need to prove that all of their rapid changes to the game will not negatively affect the core gameplay. This will all be on display and more on Tuesday, June 12th at 3:30 Pacific.