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Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 FNCS is on the horizon, and this one is going to be the biggest of all time. Epic Games announced a $20 million prize pool for the upcoming FNCS, which is a huge boost for the competitive community.
This year's FNCS is highly-anticipated despite the delay from Epic Games. The February FNCS will have a huge prize pool and redefine Fortnite in terms of gameplay and community-developer interaction.
Want to know what items might feature in the shop tomorrow? Check out our predictions for tomorrow's Fortnite Item Shop
Numerous new additions have been included in the weapons and items list. Along with that, Epic has released the new broadcast details in their official blog.
The focus here will be on the current format changes, schedules, and competitive gameplay changes added to Fortnite.
All you need to know about FNCS in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5
Epic Games made some swift and necessary changes to the FNCS before January 2021. Numerous Fortnite pros had complained about the format and the prize pool in the past.
Epic decided to standardize the format into trios for all FNCS throughout 2021. Major changes were implemented in the format, gameplay, and tournament offerings of FNCS in 2021.
Format for Fortnite FNCS 2021
The scoring format for FNCS will mostly remain the same, balancing elimination and overall placement, but some further adjustments have been added to improve the quality of FNCS in 2021.
Players will compete in a single cross-platform player pool. This will effectively help players on different platforms to team up together. Similarly, the weekly qualifiers will have an additional round.
If the teams qualify for the semifinals, they cannot play in additional qualifiers to improve their scores. For instance, if a team qualified in Week 1, it won't be able to participate in Week 2 or Week 3 qualifiers.
Semifinals and finals have been scheduled on different weekends. This will give players ample time to strategize their moves.
While all the prizes have been shifted to the finals, the top three teams from each region's final will automatically qualify for next season's FNCS finals. The team will, however, have to remain the same to auto-qualify.
FNCS champions and other consistent top tier performers will be allowed to play in prize competitions during the mid and fourth quarter of 2021.
The scoring format will be a little different for single lobbies vs multiple lobbies gameplay. This is done to account for the increased level of competition.
Schedule for Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 FNCS
Epic Games also disclosed the schedule for the upcoming FNCS, which will commence on February 14th, 2021.
The first qualifier will take place from February 11th to 14th. Qualifier two will be hosted from February 18th to 21st. Similarly, the third Qualifier will be between February 25th to 28th.
The semifinals have been scheduled from March 5th to 7th. The reboot round will be hosted on March 12th and 13th. The FNCS finals for Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 will take place between March 12th and 14th.
Prize pool distribution for FNCS 2021
The $20 million prize pool will be equally divided across all regions. Epic Games also announced that they plan to host four FNCS seasons in 2021.
This means that each of these will have a $3 million prize pool with a total of $12 million in FNCS prizes throughout the year.
Epic has also planned some mid and end year tournaments that will fetch an additional $8 million in prizes.
Competitive gameplay changes for FNCS 2021
Since Fortnite has changed a lot from Chapter 2 Season 4, Epic decided to tweak the gameplay by implementing some changes.
The Lever Action Shotgun has been included in the loot pool. Rift Fish and Shockwave Grenades have been vaulted. Elevators and IO Guards have also been removed from FNCS.
Sand tunneling will remain in competitive tournaments for as long as it remains in the core playlist. Since this is a major feature of the Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5 map, the sand tunnels will remain in-game until further notice.
The number of gold bars has also been altered. This will give players a necessary boost to search for bounties and complete them in-game.
These are some of the major changes Epic has implemented to host the latest FNCS in Fortnite Chapter 2 Season 5.
The Battle Bus is heading into Fortnite! Check out the final Fortnite item shop today!
