Fortnite Champion Series format changes in action, what does the data show?

Tucked away at the beginning of Fortnite Season 5, Epic announced a number of format changes for competitive Fortnite that will likely affect the way the Fortnite Champion Series plays out.

Closing out Valentine's and Qualifier 1 of the #FNCS with @claystehling calling all of the NAWest action.@ZekimusPrime, @ShyoWager & @HelloKellyLink are going to be bring all the analysis on the desk!Head on over to https://t.co/mgicgth4ac to tune into the action!

— SUND0WN (@xSUND0WN) February 15, 2021

The most significant change for the Fortnite Champion Series is that participants are no longer allowed to continue to compete after they’ve already qualified for later rounds. This means that competitors won’t have to play against those who have already qualified - a change which brings both positives and negatives to the competition.

Fortnite Champion Series changes will let more players compete

The biggest difference between this Fortnite Champion Series and previous ones, is that skilled competitors won’t have to worry about running into world class players who have already qualified in their games.

On the one hand, this means that players don’t have to worry about having their attempts at qualification squashed by a player who has nothing to gain by participating.

Because the already-qualified players had nothing to gain, or lose, their participation created an element of randomness in their games. While most players can expect the other players to play a certain way, an already-qualified player might choose to dive into someone’s box and deal as much damage as possible, knowing that if they get eliminated in the process, it doesn’t matter that much.

Now, hopeful competitors will know that everyone in their games is each eligible for the same goal, and each equally dedicated to winning.

But it’s not all upsides

Fortnite Champion Series Chapter 2 Season 5 Qualifier 1 results and stats breakdown https://t.co/MmGSVfDiPv

— allsports (@allsports70) February 16, 2021

It’s rare for a change to be entirely good or entirely bad, and most results lie somewhere in the middle. While this change will help hopeful competitors in the Fortnite Champion Series, it has the downside of significantly altering the competitive landscape within their qualifiers. By effectively removing the best players from future competition, later qualifiers will have earned their spot in a less difficult environment.

Hopefully this won’t be that great of a change, and more data regarding this should come out in a week following the next qualifier. Still, without having a chance to prove themselves against the best of the best, it’s likely that those who qualify in the second and third qualifier will have a totally different level of expectations from those who qualified in the first one.

Without the data, it’s hard to say for sure if this will be the case, but anyone hoping to qualify in later qualifiers should definitely make sure to put in some extra hours of training for the Fortnite Champion Series. There is no such thing as going into the finals overprepared.