Fortnite Champion Series format changes

The Fortnite Champion Series will be running a little bit differently this year, as Epic has decided to shake things up and streamline certain elements of it.

We’ve got a meaty blog post for you today covering:➞ #FNCS Chapter 2 - Season 5 Format, Schedule, Prize pool, Broadcasts➞ Gameplay changes➞ More ways to competeRead all about it here: https://t.co/fZ8iOXu2x5 pic.twitter.com/Ji7kxaU69T

— Fortnite Competitive (@FNCompetitive) January 19, 2021

Compared to previous Fortnite Champion Series, this one will be run as a single cross-platform tournament - something which will almost certainly come up later.

Additionally, to handle the increased player pool, the Fortnite Champion Series will have an extra round and be spread out over a greater period of time to make it easier on player schedules.

The full list of changes to the Fortnite Champion Series

Epic published the full list of changes on their company blog:

• Players will compete in a single cross-platform player pool. This allows players on multiple platforms to play together as teammates.
• Weekly Qualifiers will have an additional Round to pare down to the final lobby more gradually. See details below.
• Once qualified to the Semi-Finals, teams will be locked and not be able to play in additional Qualifiers. This means if a team directly qualifies to the Semi-Finals in Week 1, that team won’t be able to influence Week 2 or Week 3’s Qualifiers.
• Semi-Finals and Finals will be played out on separate weekends to better manage both player fatigue and tournament operations.
• All prizes have been shifted to the Finals.
• The top three teams from each region’s Finals will auto-qualify for the next season’s FNCS Finals. Note: This change requires that all three members of the team remain together during the next season.
• FNCS Champions and other consistent top performers will earn the opportunity to be invited to the mid and end-of-year prize competitions.
• Slightly different scoring formats for single lobby vs. multiple lobby gameplay, to account for increased level of competition and the increased challenge of obtaining eliminations in the later stages.

In addition to these changes, the Fortnite Champion Series is currently scheduled to begin on February 4th, with finals on March 12-14.

How will these changes affect the Fortnite Champion Series

Epic announces Fortnite esports will have $20,000,000 in prize money this year and all FNCS tournaments will be played with PC and console players together. Epic actually doing some good things for competitive Fortnite pogchamp

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) January 19, 2021

These changes have the potential to significantly change major aspects of the Fortnite Champion Series. The biggest change will be the merging of PC and console players into a single player pool. This may be seen as a controversial decision due to the way Epic has been unable to balance Fortnite across for both consoles and PCs.

Console players require generous aim-assistance and other benefits to keep up with keyboard and mouse players - something that leads to significant disputes over how much is too much assistance.

Additionally, teams who have already qualified for the semi-finals will now no longer be a variable in other qualifiers. This will prevent teams from being gatekept by teams that already qualified and should allow for some newer players to make it to the finals. These changes also imply that Epic will be running Fortnite invitationals later in the year.

Overall, it should be interesting to follow the Fortnite Champion Series this year to see how these format changes affect the competitive landscape.