Epic announces $8 million Fortnite Summer Skirmish series

Earlier this year, Epic Games announced its first foray into official competitions for Fortnite, and it's finally kicking off with the Summer Skirmish series.

The competitions will run for eight weeks, awarding participants with a total $8 million in prize money. Events start this weekend (July 14) with a $250,000 duos competition. As hefty as it sounds, $8 million is a pretty small portion of the $100 million Epic has put up for the 2018-2019 season. 

More Fortnite

What's new with the latest Fortnite season
The best Fortnite creative codes
The optimal Fortnite settings
Our favorite Fortnite skins
The best Fortnite toys

While Epic previously stated that anyone can participate in the first year of competitive Fortnite, it says that "in order to jumpstart the competition, invitations for the inaugural Summer Skirmish matches have already been sent." Expect a lineup featuring big entertainers and upcoming competitive players

With Fortnite Season 5 starting early tomorrow morning, my bet is that an evolution of the replay viewer will allow us to watch the events live and in-engine is on the way to accompany Saturday's duos competition. Either way, I'll definitely be watching. 

James Davenport

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.