Fortnite World Cup 2019: Video Trailer, $40M Prize Pool, Schedule and More

Epic Games announced details Monday for the $40 million Fortnite World Cup, which will conclude with the Finals in New York City from July 26 through July 28.

The World Cup trailer confirmed there will be 10 weeks of online open qualifiers, with $1 million in prize money available each week. The Finals are going to feature a $30 million prize pool.

Qualification begins April 13 using the format announced last week.

There will be three stages of competition:

1. Arena Mode: Any Fortnite player can compete to reach the points threshold to advance.
2. Semifinal Saturdays: A three-hour window in each region (Europe, North America East, North America West, Brazil, Asia and Oceania) to determine the top 3,000 competitors across 10 matches.
3. Championship Sundays: The remaining players compete for a share of the $1 million weekly prize pool in the same three-hour, 10-match format as Saturday.

The odd-numbered weeks (1,3,5,7,9) will be solo competition, and the even-numbered weeks (2,4,6,8,10) will be duo competition.

Popular Twitch streamer Ninja, who's long been noncommittal about his future in competitive Fortnite, has been practicing with Reverse2k in recent weeks and posted a message on Twitter following Monday's announcement:

Along with Ninja, the road to the World Cup will also feature all of the usual suspects, led by the dynamic duo of FaZe Tfue and FaZe Cloak as well as gamers from teams like TSM, Liquid and Ghost.

But what makes the World Cup special is the open qualification process, leaving the door open for everyday players who may have been left behind in the early months of Fortnite competition, which leaned heavily on popular streamers to attract attention, to make their big breakthrough.

With $40 million on the line, there's no shortage of motivation for pros and amateurs alike.