Fortnite Championship Series

Founded	2019
First season	Season X
Most recent champions	Egor 'SwizzY' Luciko Aleksa 'Queasy' Cvetkovic Andrejs 'Merstach' Piratovs

TheFortnite Championship Series (FNCS),^[1] previously formally and still informally referred to as theFortnite Champion Series, is the premier seasonalFortnite Battle Royale tournament since 2019.^[2] FNCS is divided across seven regions, and generally takes place once every full length in-gameseason. Since 2024, the first three FNCS tournaments of each Chapter – known as "Majors" – have taken place during Seasons 1–3. These have served as qualifiers for the fourth season's FNCS Global Championship, an annual LAN tournament.

Players earn FNCS leaderboard points through outlasting other players, or eliminating them. Although formats, squad sizes and points systems have changed over the years, the tournaments have always consisted of a set of qualification rounds and a grand final, whose victors are crowned "FNCS winners". Since 2025, Epic Games have also hosted annual in-person FNCS Pro-Am tournaments. Besides large prize money, winners are awarded an in-game harvesting tool known as the "Blade of Champions".

In total, 30 FNCS events have been held—24 online, 4 global LAN tournaments and one FNCS Pro-Am.

FNCS was initially contested across seven server regions: Europe, North America East, North America West, Brazil, Asia, Middle East, and Oceania. This lasted until 2023, when North America East and West were combined into North America Central. In 2025, North America West was reinstated as an FNCS region with North America Central remaining. With proximity to a server providing an in-game advantage, the physical server locations are kept secret, but reverse-engineering gives the following locations, according to an article by ESTNN from 2024:^[3]

Epic Games didn't host any major regularFortnite tournaments before FNCS. Instead, one-off tournaments such as the Fortnite Pro-Am, Summer Skirmish, Fall Skirmish and Winter Royale – each featuring $1,000,000 or more in prize money – were held in 2018.^[4][5][6][7] Notably, the Fall Skirmish series experienced server issues due to large amounts of players surviving into the closing stages of matches. This prompted Epic Games to introduce a game mechanic known as "storm surge", dealing damage to the players who have dealt the least amount of damage in case the player count exceeds a given threshold at a given stage of the match.^[8] This mechanic effectively motivates players to engage in combat, and plays an important role in FNCS tournaments to this day.^[9][10]

TheFortnite World Cup was announced in February 2019.^[11] Initially intended as an annual event, theCOVID-19 pandemic rendered it a one-off tournament;^[12]Fortnite world champions are crowned at Global Championships nowadays.

FNCS was first announced byEpic Games at theFortnite World Cup.^[13] To compete in the first FNCS tournament, Season X, players had to achieve an in-game rank of "Champion", hence the name FortniteChampion Series. Players in teams of three competed in five weekly tournaments, each awarding cumulative series points to qualify trios for the "Heats", these being set groups qualifying the highest-performing trios to the "Grand Finals". An age limit of 13 was set for FNCS participation, which persists to this day.^[14]

The system of weekly tournaments with cumulative series points, heats and grand finals remained into Chapter 2, but the squad size changed to four players in Season 1, and two in Season 2.^[15]

A recurring complaint during the early FNCS tournaments of Chapter 2 was the overpowered nature of "aim assist" – an in-game setting compensating for the supposed disadvantage ofcontroller as opposed tokeyboard and mouse. Then highest-followed Twitch streamer in the world and FNCS playerTyler 'Ninja' Blevins was among those critical of aim assist.^[16][17] This was supported by clips of controller players "beaming" their enemies, i.e. hitting abnormally many shots in a row, notably from Chapter 2 Season 1 FNCS winnerDomnick 'UnknownxArmy' Green.^[18][19] Although FNCS was split between PC and console/mobile from Seasons 2–4 of Chapter 2, Epic Games weakened aim assist several times in 2020.^[19]

Starting in Chapter 2 Season 2, FNCS winners were awarded the Axe of Champions – an in-game harvesting tool with the FNCS logo – to use for the season following their victory.^[20]

On April 24, 2020, Epic Games announced the FNCS Invitational; a solo tournament across all regions. The tournament – taking place in May, 2020 – featured the Grand Finalists from all previous FNCS tournaments, along with 100 players having qualified from an open qualifier, and up to 100 players invited by Epic Games.^[21]

The Chapter 2 Season 3 FNCS was also played in solos, but the game mode switched back to trios for the rest of Chapter 2's regular FNCS tournaments, starting in Season 4, with the series points and heats system remaining.^[22]

In June, 2021, Epic Games hosted the FNCS All-Star Showdown, which was contested in several events;^[23] its Battle Royale tournament was played in solos. It featured one qualifying round and one grand final across all regions.^[24] Then, in Chapter 2 Season 8, Epic Games hosted the 2021 FNCS Grand Royale; a trio FNCS featuring qualification rounds on November 11–14 and grand finals on November 19–21.^[25] These events were played apart from the regular seasonal FNCS tournaments.

In 2022, following the launch of Chapter 3, the competitive game mode switched to duos. The chapter featured three seasonal FNCS tournaments from which the 50 best-performing duos selected by Epic Games qualified to the FNCS Invitational 2022, taking place in Chapter 3 Season 4. Similar to previous FNCS tournaments, Chapter 3 FNCS tournaments consisted of a qualification stage awarding series points, semi-finals and grand finals.^[22] The original Axe of Champions was replaced by the "Axe of Champions 2.0", featuring the updated FNCS logo in Chapter 3 Season 2.^[26]

The FNCS Invitational 2022 was held in-person inRaleigh on November 11–12, 2022.^[27]

Chapters 4 and 5 featured similar FNCS formats as Chapter 3, with the same team size and strictly seasonal tournaments. Epic Games did however lower the rank requirement to participate from "Champion" to "Contender", as well as naming the tournaments Major 1, 2, and 3 respectively, each Major taking place in the corresponding season. Additionally, the fourth season's Invitational LAN was replaced with a Global Championship, for which 50 qualification spots were awarded by high FNCS Grand Finals placements.^[22]

Upon a ranked system overhaul in May 2023,^[28] the barrier to entering FNCS tournaments was set to "Platinum" rank or above, starting in Chapter 4 Season 3.^[29]

In addition to Majors 1, 2, and 3, a "Last Chance Major" tournament was held in August, 2023, qualifying a further 25 duos to the 2023 FNCS Global Championship.^[30]

The 2023 FNCS Major 3 winnersEgor 'SwizzY' Luciko and Daniil 'Putrick' Abdrakhmanov, and Last Chance Major qualifying duo 'NeFrizi' and Vladislav 'Howly' Korobkin; all Russian players, were disqualified for the 2023 FNCS Global Championship due to sanctions by Epic Games.^[31][32]

The 2023 FNCS Global Championship was held inCopenhagen on October 13–15, 2023. On the first day, the 49 qualified duos through Majors 1, 2 and 3 competed in the Upper Bracket for 25 spots in the third day's Grand Finals. On the second day, the bottom 24 duos in the Upper Bracket competed in the Lower Bracket against the 24 qualified duos from the Last Chance Major for the remaining 25 spots in the grand finals.^[33][34]

The Fortnite Champion Series was renamed to the "Fortnite Championship Series" ahead of Chapter 5. Much like Chapter 4, Chapter 5 featured three FNCS Majors and one FNCS Global Championship, the latter taking place in Fort Worth on September 7–8, 2024. There was no Last Chance Major in 2024, and the 2024 FNCS Global Championship featured 50 duos.^[35] Chapter 5's FNCS Majors each featured two open qualifiers each awarding series points, leading to semi finals consisting of a lower and upper bracket, in turn leading to the FNCS Grand Finals.^[22]

Ahead of Chapter 6, the Axe of Champions 2.0 was replaced by a new harvesting tool known as the "Blade of Champions".^[36] Chapter 6 saw the competitive game mode switching to trios, as well as the introduction of Divisional Cups. To compete in the FNCS Play-Ins, in turn qualifying trios for the Grand Finals, players had to reach Division 1, the highest among 3. Last Chance Qualifiers were also held, in which players from all divisions could play.^[37] As well as Majors 1–3 and the 2025 Global Championship, Epic Games hosted the 2025 FNCS Pro-Am inLos Angeles, on May 10, 2025. It featured 20 pairings of professional players and content creators and was played in the Reload game mode.^[38]

The 2025 FNCS Global Championship took place inLyon on September 6–7, 2025.^[39] During the event, Epic Games unveiled the competitive roadmap for 2026, revealing the return of duos as the competitive game mode, a mid-season LAN, a Reload Elite Series LAN, a $1,000,000 Mobile Series, Ranked 2.0, the return of the FNCS Pro-Am, and the return of the FNCS Global Championship to Europe.^[40]

In October, 2025, Epic Games updated the problematic storm surge mechanic to take into account net damage, as opposed to total dealt damage. This change intended to combat the prevalent strategy known as "surge trading", in which teams would build towers and trade shots without fighting, a strategy that sometimes led to teaming allegations. The update received generally positive reactions from professional players.^[41][42]

Epic Games provided a calendar for the upcoming 2026 FNCS in December, 2025, in which it was revealed that Chapter 7 Season 1 would be without an FNCS.^[43] This marked the first full-length season without an FNCS since its inception in 2019. However, the FNCS Trial, determining duos' division, is set to take place on January 31, in Season 1.^[44] Much like in Chapter 6, players will have to reach Division 1 – the highest among 5 on Europe and North America Central, and 3 on the other regions – to play in the FNCS Play-Ins ahead of each Major, with a Last Chance Qualifier also open for players from all divisions.^[45] The 2026 FNCS Major 1, taking place in April, will qualify players to the FNCS Major 1 Summit, a $1,000,000 LAN event in May. This LAN, along with FNCS Majors 2–3, will qualify players to the 2026 FNCS Global Championship. In addition, a new harvesting tool for FNCS winners, the Axe of Champions 3.0, will be introduced.^[46]

Though not part of FNCS, the Reload Elite Series plays an important role in players' esports organization affiliations in 2026, with the tournament, played inFortnite Reload, qualifying duos for the 2026 Esports World Cup. Notably, organizationGen.G returned to Fortnite after five years, signing former FNCS winnersAidan ‘Ajerss‘ Bernero andMaguire ‘Ritual‘ Morton.^[47]

Source:Epic Games

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