Fortnite: Party Royale celebrates weird sports with ESPN 8

Players will be able to watch ESPN 8 - The Ocho live through the Fortnite Party Royale virtual venue. This stream aims to celebrate the wonderful world of weird sports on 8/8, also known as Ocho Day.

ESPN 8 - The Ocho, where have I heard that name before?

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Anyone who was a middle schooler in 2004 will almost certainly have heard of ESPN 8, the Ocho before. This channel began as a joke in the Vince Vaughn comedy, Dodgeball, wherein Vaughn competes against a hyperactive Ben Stiller character in competitive Dodgeball in order to save his failing gym, all while providing us with the best Jason Bateman line in history.

Roughly three years ago ESPN decided to make The Ocho into a real event with the full backing of the network, and it’s been going on every year since.

The Ocho comes to Fortnite

Jump into the heat of the competition 🔥@ESPN 8: The Ocho is coming to Party Royale!A marathon of the finest in seldom seen sports from Cornhole to Spikeball and more, catch it all on the Big Screen starting on August 8 at 9 AM ET. pic.twitter.com/Loe22NoDS8
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 4, 2020

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As eSports have grown into a worldwide phenomenon it’s easy to see how something like Fortnite or other competitive games might have once fit into The Ocho’s programming, or as they said themselves “if it’s almost a sport, we’ve got it here!”

Although by now many such games have garnered enough of a following to be considered more mainstream, The Ocho was initially created to be an ally to the often ignored competitive events that had not yet become mainstream. In 2004, it would be easy to see how that might have included competitive gaming.