Is Fortnite an esport? Well, these League of Legend players have given their opinions.
Fortnite as an esport. It has been a debate ever since the game started to increase in popularity. Now, we’re at a stage where Epic Games is dishing out $100m into their competitive scene. Some of the biggest pro-teams in gaming have recruited the best Fortnite players and content creators. This shows that there is definite potential.
However, it looks like that is all it is, potential; at least at the moment. Though the Summer Skirmish events have been a good watch, for the most part, they have been slow-paced and a little hard to follow. That’s not to say that they haven’t done well, with streams peaking at over 100,000 concurrent viewers on the Fortnite channel alone.
Pro-gamers, such as OpTic Karma, have claimed that Fortnite will fail as an esports. However, some of the biggest and best League of Legend players in North America have now shared their thoughts.
In a video from Akshon Esports LoL, we get to see what they think of the game and if it can work as an esport.
Matt Matthew Elento (Team Liquid)
I actually really love watching Fortnite. It seems like they really fine-tuned their broadcast and how you can spectate. When it came out, I was impressed, and it made it fun to watch. I tried watching PUBG before, and it felt like a mess, and it wasn’t entertaining to watch.
Svenskeren Dennis Johnsen (Cloud9)
Battle Royale looks pretty fun, it’s super fun to play, but as an esport, I don’t understand how it’s going to work. I’ve seen the Fortnite tournaments and who is getting the most kills against like 12 year-olds is like, okay, that’s great! I don’t understand that. I guess LAN’s with 100 people is cool.
WildTurtle Jason Tran (Team FlyQuest)
It seems pretty hard to make it an esport because of how the map plays out. It’s hard to see everything going on, like if two huge fights, the most popular player on this side and another most popular player on the other side, like how do you see that?
Romain Bigeard (OpTic Gaming GM)
I think Fortnite has an identity crisis for esports. Like Fortnite is not an esports game absolutely not. The overall Battle Royale genre is struggling to turn into an esport because it is now balanced and is all about where you spawn and loot. However, the game is enjoyable to watch that’s why is so prevalent on streams.
Obviously, League of Legends is entirely different to Fortnite, but these guys are pro-gamers, and they have some pretty solid opinions it.