The Rocket League World Championship and Fortnite Battle Royale Global Championship will bring the best players in the world to the DFW metroplex to compete for millions of dollars.
The Fortnite championship — also known as FNCS – and Rocket League championship will be held at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth from for two weekends in September. 148 players–50 Fortnite competitive duos and 16 Rocket League trio teams, will come from 35 countries to compete in the two events for a combined prize pool of $3 million. Esports fans can view the competition both in-person and online.
While FNCS draws international competitors, the reigning global champion Cooper Smith, is a Texas native and will be playing in front of a home crowd. Smith first got into Fortnite the way many young gamers do.
“I started playing Fortnite around the age of 11,” Smith said. “I remember all my friends playing in the sixth grade, and figured I’d give it a shot around the same time, so I started playing in early 2018.”
Fortnite, even in its early years, was different from other battle royale games like Players Unknown Battlegrounds or H1Z1. It had more mechanics than just shooting. Fortnite involves building, landing, knowledge about different guns and their strengths, communicating with teammates and more – which drew in many players, both casual and professional.
“Fortnite was always more appealing to me in comparison to other shooters because of the diverse mechanics required in comparison to other shooter games,” Smith said. “For instance, building, editing and the evolving mobility make it much more interesting and appealing to me and that’s why I chose it instead of other games.”
FNCS takes on a duo format instead of solos, trios or squads. In other formats, a player may choose different explicit classes or fall into a certain role while playing on a team. However, in Fortnite competitive, there are two roles: the “in-game leader” and the “fragger,”a player who looks for kills.
“The Global Championship I won in Denmark, I was the IGL, however, I am currently a fragger for the duo I am playing with this year,” Smith said. “I can play both roles proficiently, so I don’t really fall specifically into a single role.
Competitive Rocket League is typically locked to a 3v3 format, but it can be played in different modes just like Fortnite. Although the 3v3 format is the most popular, competitive players believe other formats of gameplay, such as 2v2 or 1v1, could be just as entertaining to play and watch. With the championships taking place in Texas, a home advantage is given to Jack Benton, screen name “Apparently Jack” — a professional Rocket League player who moved from the UK to Dallas to further his competitive career.
“I’d say 3v3 is still my favorite game mode because it’s what I’ve played professionally and put the most focus on in the last 4 years,” Benton said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that if 1v1 had the same level of tournaments and attention from Epic Games, it would be the most popular and exciting game mode, for both the fans and the players.”
To spectators, competitive gaming may seem as easy as taking a seat in front of a PC and playing the game, but there is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes, such as players practicing for several hours a week and adopting a competitive and winning mindset during championships.
“We’re very lucky — we play games for a living; [it’s] not exactly a hard thing to do,” Benton said. “However, because all of us want to be the best in the world, that mental strain it puts on you to constantly be working on it to try and get ahead of everyone else can be quite demanding, just like regular sports.”
The FNCS will take place on the weekend of Sept. 7-8, while the Rocket League World Championship will have a live audience for the weekend of Sept. 13-15.