Epic announces $2.8mil Fortnite tournament

Elite Fortnite players anticipating the delayed start to Chapter 2 - Season 3 won't have to wait until June to get back to competition.

Epic Games, creator of the popular game, announced Friday the creation of an online tournament with a total purse of $2 million (S$2.8 million) to begin next week.

According to a release by Epic, the Fortnite Champion Series Invitational will be played across seven regions - Europe, North America East, North America West, Middle East, Asia, Brazil and Oceania - with up to 500 players invited to each region. Another 100 in each region can get in via open qualifying tournaments.

The tournament officially gets underway May 1 with the start of the Middle East qualifiers and ends with the grand finals across all regions the weekend of May 23-24.

Unlike most Fortnite tournaments, however, this event will be played in solo format rather than in teams.

Fortnite competitions have awarded more than US$85.1 million to date, according to Esports Insider, making it the third-highest paying competitive game behind Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Earlier this month, Epic announced the extension of Chapter 2 - Season 2 from its scheduled April 30 conclusion to a June 4 end date, the same date Season 3 is scheduled to begin.