Fortnite Chapter 3 FNCS Announced with $3.0 Million Total Prize Pool

Epic Games just announced the format and prize pool for the Chapter 3 Season 1 Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS).

The prize pools remain relatively the same as last year’s season-ending FNCS finals. Here is a breakdown of the $3,008,500 million prize pool per region.

Competitive and professional Fortnite players will have an opportunity to compete in the Chapter 3 Season 1 FNCS beginning February 17.  There is a lot of new information in the announcement by Epic, so let’s get to it.

CHAPTER 3 SEASON 1 FNCS BEGINS FEBRUARY 17

The Chapter 3 Season 1 FNCS will have two Qualifiers, followed by two weeks of competition including Semi-Finals and Finals. Let’s break down the dates:

QUALIFIERS (FEBRUARY 17-18 & FEBRUARY 19-20)

Epic is keeping the same number of Qualifiers as last season, but in the new Duos format, they have increased the number of teams that directly qualify for Finals. The top eight teams from each Qualifier will advance directly to the FNCS Finals. 

SEMI-FINALS (FEBRUARY 24-27)

The Semi-Finals will also work slightly differently this FNCS season. Achieving a Victory Royale in any single-lobby tournament match is a pinnacle Fortnite achievement. Epic is delivering more Victory Royale focused action this season along with rewarding consistent performance. For any Session, you’ll either need to win a game or be one of the top six most consistent teams during that Session to advance to the Finals.

Only the top 50 teams from the Series Point Leaderboard will compete during Session 1 in each region. Session 1 will consist of five matches, and 11 teams from this Session will advance to the Finals (5 Victory Royale winners and top 6 consistent teams).

Session 2 will fill the 11 vacant team spots with the 51st-61st teams on the Series Point Leaderboard. This new 50-team lobby will also run five matches and advance 11 teams to the Finals. (5 Victory Royale winners and top 6 consistent teams).

Session 3 will fill the new 11 vacant team spots with the 62nd-72nd teams on the Series Point Leaderboard. This new 50-team lobby will compete across six matches and advance 12 total teams to the Finals. (6 Victory Royale winners and top 6 consistent teams). Here’s a condensed description of how Finals advancement works for each day:

Session 1: 5 Matches; 2.5 Hours; 1st – 50th on the Series Points Leaderboard
Session 2: 5 Matches; 2.5 Hours; 1st – 61st on the Series Points Leaderboard
Session 3: 6 Matches; 3 Hours; 1st – 72nd on the Series Points Leaderboard

FINALS (MARCH 5-6)

The FNCS Finals will be a similar format as previous seasons, but with the new Match Point variable. A team can end the competition early by earning 500 total points and 3 Victory Royales. Once a team has met both thresholds, it will be declared the FNCS Champions. If no team meets both thresholds by the end of 12 games, the Finals will play out exactly how it has the past few seasons. Match Point will be extremely challenging to achieve and is only reserved for a completely dominant performance for the first iteration.