Fortnite 'Winter Royale' free tournament to offer $1M in prizes

Top “Fortnite” players can earn up to $1 million in prizes when the popular video game holds its free-to-enter “Winter Royale” tournament later this month, publisher Epic Games said in a blog post on Tuesday.

The online tournament will serve as a “test event” to help Epic Games troubleshoot issues on its platform ahead of a larger “Fortnite World Cup” in 2019. Gamers can join the “Winter Royale Qualifiers” on Nov. 24 and 25. Players who earn the highest scores will be invited to the “Winter Royale Finals” in December.

It’s unclear how the $1 million prize pool will be divided among players, though at least a portion of the total will be up for grabs during the qualifier event. The initial event is open to all players.

“There will be several chances for anyone to try and get a high score during the Winter Royale Qualifier days,” Epic Games said.

The Winter Royale finale will take place from Nov. 30 to Dec. 1 for European players and from Dec. 11-12 for North American players.

Epic Games announced last May that it would provide $100 million in prizes for pro tournaments for the first year of its competitive “Fortnite” league. The popular Battle Royale game drops players into a sandbox environment and forces them to scrounge for supplies and battle each other for survival.

The video game publisher raised $1.25 billion in new private funding in a financing round disclosed in October.