A Fortnite Olympics event is joining esports week, but one without the central Battle Royale features.
Fortnite is a huge Battle Royale and it’s about to cross a whole new frontier for esports, joining the Olympics. A Fortnite Olympics event will be a major part of the inaugural Olympics Esports week!
The Battle Royale has been chosen along with along less traditional sports to make up a part of the full Olympics. This is a big event for Fortnite, even if it’s taking part in a slightly different game mode to the standard part of the game. Fans can follow the action along at home and can catch some of the bigger names in Fortnite epsorts taking in the tournament in June.
Fortnite Olympics Event
The new Fortnite event is going to be a part of the Olympics Esports week. This is going to be a four-day event, with a diverse group of games being shown off. It’s being hosted in Singapore, by the IOC, the International Olympic Committee. The Fortnite Olympics event is just one over the week. Arguments have gone back and forth for a few years know about if esports needs a role in the Olympics.
Going back to 2018, organizers suggested that esports couldn’t be a part of the Olympics unless they were completely violence free! While the conversation has improved a lot since, the games presented have strangely had their more directly confrontational elements removed.
This new week of events looks set to finally bring the competitive gaming to the biggest event in athletics, in a bit of an altered form. The Fortnite Olympic event is part of the new Olympics Esports week. In some ways, it is reassuringly a part of the standard esports scene than some might have expected. It’s not an entirely separate branch with unknown players competing. Instead, the players taking part have been invited to the event directly from their performance in mainstream Fortnite esports. 12 players who have placed well at recent FNCS events will be joining the tournament.
What is the Fortnite Olympics Event?
Since this is a special exhibition, it won’t be running in Fortnite’s standard format. We’re not seeing days of Battle Royale matches with the looting and other aspects. Instead, Fortnite is really the host platform for a completely different challenge. The players taking part are the best of the competitive Battle Royale, but they’re competing for a different goal than just last man standing.
They’ll be taking part of a test of skills on a special creative island. It’s a game mode designed to seem similar to sport shooting, a standard event in the Olympics. They’ll need to navigate the in-game environment as well as demonstrating how level shooting skills. The winner be crowned the champion of the first Fortnite Olympics event. Fortnite isn’t known for its in-depth shooter mechanics, but the creative platform for the game still makes it a good fit here. Out of how many people play Fortnite, plenty spent time in modes like this.
The tournament isn’t quite the hundred-man Battle Royale that Fortnite typically shows off. It’s still a good chance to demonstrate skill in the game though. Different approaches to competitive Fortnite are always welcome, especially given how diverse the game’s modes have become recently with additions like Unreal Editor for Fortnite.
Olympics Esports Week
The new Fortnite Olympics event isn’t the only game at this week. There’s going to be loads of major tournament throughout the first week as it runs from 22-25 June. These are the games that will be a part of the Olympics Esports week:
- Tic Tac Bow (Archery)
- WBSC eBASEBALL: Power Pros (Baseball)
- Chess
- Zwift (Cycling)
- Just Dance (Dancing)
- Gran Turismo (Motor Sport)
- Virtual Regatta (Sailing)
- Fortnite (Shooting)
- Tennis Clash (Tennis)
- Virtual Taekwondo
These games are all representing different elements of the mainline Olympics. It’s a different approach to actually hosting competitive esports like LoL or Dota. However, it does keep things tied to the athletics theme of the Olympics.
Hosting actual esports without a real-world equivalent at the Olympics would quickly open it up to hosting a very large number of games. Who decides if Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Halo all need a spot at the Olympics? Would we end up with everything getting a go? These kinds of problems would pop up if the Olympics was attempting to host epsorts competitions proper in this event.
Although the system they’re using has some problems. A lot of the games can scarcely be called esports. Other titles that have active esports scenes as a direct parallel to real Olympic events are completely missing. Like football, which this esports week could actually improve by hosting an event where it is played by trick performing rocket powered cars.
The Fortnite Olympics event is a fun addition none the less though. Fans can tune in on the official stream of the Olympic epsorts week to see how all these events go down!
