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Fortnite Pro-Am gives even more room for competitive growth

By Connor Ulrey

LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 21: Twitch streamer and professional gamer Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins streams during Ninja Vegas '18 at Esports Arena Las Vegas on April 21, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Blevins is playing against more than 230 challengers in front of 700 fans in 10 live 'Fortnite' games with up to USD 50,000 in cash prizes on the line. He is donating all his winnings to the Alzheimer's Association. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - APRIL 21: Twitch streamer and professional gamer Tyler 'Ninja' Blevins streams during Ninja Vegas '18 at Esports Arena Las Vegas on April 21, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Blevins is playing against more than 230 challengers in front of 700 fans in 10 live 'Fortnite' games with up to USD 50,000 in cash prizes on the line. He is donating all his winnings to the Alzheimer's Association. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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50 content creators and 50 celebrities took to the stage in Los Angeles Tuesday afternoon to take part in the first Fortnite Pro-Am for charity.

The Pro-Am signified everything that Epic and the community it’s building wanted for the competitive side of the hugely popular battle royale game. Rumors have swirled about the competitive side of the game and in the past few weeks it’s only grown with the UMG series of “Fortnite Friday’s” involving duos competing for glory and a $20,000 cash prize.

Epic took that to the next level at the new LAFC stadium in Los Angeles, even detailing the upper deck seats for good measure.

The event hosted the best in the game’s community including Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, Courage JD, TSM Myth, Noah J456 and a slew of other popular streamers and creators from around the world. On the opposite side you had everybody from Paul George of the Oklahoma City Thunder to Joel McHale to Tarik Cohen, the self-proclaimed best Fortnite player in the NFL.

Unlike the UMG events hosted in the past, we saw the new spectator tools and one of the most exciting presentations of the competitive aspects since launch. Over three games, two warm ups (solo and duo), we saw something we hadn’t seen previously.

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The cast crew was spot on as well. Hosted by  Justine “iJustine” Ezarik, the crew — most notably Ben “Dr Lupo” Lupo, a consistent duo partner for streams with the day’s winner Ninja — gave fantastic insight into the playstyles that each player brought to the table and what would happen as the game progressed. Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez and Kassie “Gloom” Isabelle rounded out the four person team.

After a slow start to the warm ups, Ninja nearly clutched a 1v2 in the duos warmup game before he and EDM sensation Christopher Comstock AKA Marshmello eliminated eight on the way to clinching the top spot and $1 Million for the charity of their choice.

On top of the hype for the event itself, Epic announced the Fortnite World Cup coming in the fall of 2018. Available to any and all players, it goes along with their original announcement of a $100 million prize pool for competitive play.

Sunday’s event was just the beginning for the competitive base for Fortnite and a great jumping off point to show just how far they can go with this. The $3 million in total going to charity isn’t bad either and a great showing for fans and gamers alike to just have fun for the right reasons.

Courage wasn’t too bummed to finish just below the Victory Royale either.

Fortnite has seen massive growth since the mode launched and that growth seems constant. Decisions like these can only help and it’s a promising sign with the tools shown yesterday that competitive won’t be a slouch. Nearly 2 million tuned in for the inaugural Pro-Am.