Fortnite FNCS 2021: Everything players need to know before participating

Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 FNCS is on the horizon, and this one is going to be the biggest of all time. Epic Games announced a $20 million prize pool for the upcoming FNCS, which is a huge boost for the competitive community.

sorry for not streaming in about a week, FNCS soon and im just grinding 24/7 rn for it

— Liquid Stretch (@Stretch) February 8, 2021

This year's FNCS is highly-anticipated despite the delay from Epic Games. The February FNCS will have a huge prize pool and redefine Fortnite in terms of gameplay and community-developer interaction.

Trio FNCS on Friday with @DawnsWRLD and @spdy1x!Vibes are always first priority for me, and these guys are EHmazing.

— Nick Eh 30 (@NickEh30) February 9, 2021

Numerous new additions have been included in the weapons and items list. Along with that, Epic has released the new broadcast details in their official blog.

The focus here will be on the current format changes, schedules, and competitive gameplay changes added to Fortnite.

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All you need to know about FNCS in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5

Going Dam split for FNCS with @Stretch and @Safarooniee pic.twitter.com/Beqzk2Vws0

— NRG Zayt (@zayt) February 9, 2021

Epic Games made some swift and necessary changes to the FNCS before January 2021. Numerous Fortnite pros had complained about the format and the prize pool in the past.

super excited for FNCS to start this season. been putting a lot more time and dedication into getting better and i’m already seeing a lot of improvement (also why i haven’t been streaming lately)

— NRG Edgey (@Edgeyy) February 9, 2021

everyday until FNCS starts really is just a filler episode

— Liquid Stretch (@Stretch) February 9, 2021

Epic decided to standardize the format into trios for all FNCS throughout 2021. Major changes were implemented in the format, gameplay, and tournament offerings of FNCS in 2021.

Format for Fortnite FNCS 2021

The scoring format for FNCS will mostly remain the same, balancing elimination and overall placement, but some further adjustments have been added to improve the quality of FNCS in 2021.

Thinking about it, Apex also has rosters from orgs, unlike Fortnite. Maybe it has to do with the number of players in a group constantly changing in FN? I don't expect FN to switch to that format any time soon despite keeping FNCS as trios for all of 2021. Random thought.

— gedster (@gedster3) February 7, 2021

Players will compete in a single cross-platform player pool. This will effectively help players on different platforms to team up together. Similarly, the weekly qualifiers will have an additional round.

The problem is not the gamemode but the format. Solo fncs was stacked from opens to finals but people will never care in 1 round qualifiers and epic needs to realise that. They should bring back 2 round cashcups @FNCompetitive

— Dangoms (@DangomsFN) February 6, 2021

If the teams qualify for the semifinals, they cannot play in additional qualifiers to improve their scores. For instance, if a team qualified in Week 1, it won't be able to participate in Week 2 or Week 3 qualifiers.

Worst format, worst RNG, and solos are ass right now. Thank god FNCS is trios

— bigpetedog13 (@The_Pas13) February 6, 2021

Semifinals and finals have been scheduled on different weekends. This will give players ample time to strategize their moves.

In the fncs format section (2.5.1) it says this but on cash cups and ltms rules section (2.5.1) it says nothing like this so I am very sure we can play all region cash cups. pic.twitter.com/sPZyoKBbUL

— DK Worm (@Worm_FN) February 5, 2021

While all the prizes have been shifted to the finals, the top three teams from each region's final will automatically qualify for next season's FNCS finals. The team will, however, have to remain the same to auto-qualify.

The Chapter 2 Season 5 #FNCS kicks off this weekend! Drop in-game now for a last chance to reach Champion Division by competing in the Contender Hype Cup before the FNCS competition begins. pic.twitter.com/I3GUJufWSE

— Fortnite Competitive (@FNCompetitive) February 8, 2021

FNCS champions and other consistent top tier performers will be allowed to play in prize competitions during the mid and fourth quarter of 2021.

The scoring format will be a little different for single lobbies vs multiple lobbies gameplay. This is done to account for the increased level of competition.

Yo am actually becoming the best holy shit, but my schedule is shit for fncs I can’t only play 2nd week. For 2 reasons going on a trip and some legal documents stuff I have to follow by but I will see what I can do about it might be able to play week 1

— RichHomieLunar (@Just_zak_) February 2, 2021

Schedule for Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 FNCS

Epic Games also disclosed the schedule for the upcoming FNCS, which will commence on February 14th, 2021.

fncs in 3 days and the schedule still doesn't make sense pic.twitter.com/ip6s8cRcAe

— Kryt (@KrytFN) February 2, 2021

The first qualifier will take place from February 11th to 14th. Qualifier two will be hosted from February 18th to 21st. Similarly, the third Qualifier will be between February 25th to 28th.

Trying to figure out stream schedule with fncs coming, working out an every 3 day yt upload schedule & in talks with some managers to get back on the daily tiktok/insta upload

— 5G BenPen (@BenPenTV) February 2, 2021

The semifinals have been scheduled from March 5th to 7th. The reboot round will be hosted on March 12th and 13th. The FNCS finals for Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 will take place between March 12th and 14th.

When I plan my hole schedule for FNCS and then it’s 2 days away and they gets moved back 9 days wtf epic.

— justice -α- (@stqcksiscracked) February 4, 2021

Prize pool distribution for FNCS 2021

Snake your team for 5K cash. (More than FNCS prize pool)

— SypherPK (@SypherPK) February 5, 2021

The $20 million prize pool will be equally divided across all regions. Epic Games also announced that they plan to host four FNCS seasons in 2021.

Yeah hopefully next season they bring back console fncs and cash cups, even if it has a lower prizepool than pc it is still fine, and if they keep the pc prize pool the same as it is now , they won’t say that console caused their prize pool to be lowered , & we would all be happy

— jordanthecool7 (@jordanthecool71) February 3, 2021

This means that each of these will have a $3 million prize pool with a total of $12 million in FNCS prizes throughout the year.

Fortnite WC duo and solo combined outranks any tournament ever except DOTA 2 2019, also if you combine the prize pool for each fncs over all the regions they would rank extremely high aswell, for example just this season 5 FNCS will be 3,000,000 https://t.co/7nTsk7URIk

— Ck (@Ckm913) February 4, 2021

Epic has also planned some mid and end year tournaments that will fetch an additional $8 million in prizes.

Is it just me who feels like theres nothing to do in this game besides cash cups, but when cash cups comes I realise there's not even a good enough prize pool to be excited for it, then im like alr fncs might be good but theres no console fncs and only money in grands. 😶

— Devour Raynex (@RaynexFN) February 7, 2021

Competitive gameplay changes for FNCS 2021

Since Fortnite has changed a lot from Chapter 2 Season 4, Epic decided to tweak the gameplay by implementing some changes.

Basically fortnite were doing a lot of solo tournaments and 2 seasons with solo fncs and nobody liked solos....so balla wrote a blog post on how solos are not good for competitive and need to change...later epic games saw this blog and fired him..

— Sydorm (@VishwasKamath7) February 1, 2021

The Lever Action Shotgun has been included in the loot pool. Rift Fish and Shockwave Grenades have been vaulted. Elevators and IO Guards have also been removed from FNCS.

I actually rate what they’re doing with these exotic weapons. Pretty much high risk high rewards and not going to effect 99% of games in FNCS whilst keeping pubs players happy.

— NJ (@BigMeatNJ_) February 2, 2021

Sand tunneling will remain in competitive tournaments for as long as it remains in the core playlist. Since this is a major feature of the Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 map, the sand tunnels will remain in-game until further notice.

it's trio fncs, 1 controller player holding 3 weapons is fine lmao

— Chronic Dizzie🌟 (@dizzie8k) December 9, 2020

The number of gold bars has also been altered. This will give players a necessary boost to search for bounties and complete them in-game.

These are some of the major changes Epic has implemented to host the latest FNCS in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5.