HOW TO HOST A FORTNITE TOURNAMENT FROM START TO FINISH Mike Hedlesky Program Manager III, Worcester County Department of Recreation and Parks QUESTION: IS ESPORT A REAL SPORT? • Reframe how we think of sports: • Does mastery of the skills needed for success require practice? • Is there a set hierarchy for competition where skill level can be determined and showcased? • Is the system for how the skill levels are determined consistent and reliable? ESPORTS STATS • 2.5 Billion people play video games worldwide • 1.1 Billion in Revenue in 2019 • Fortnite World Cup Paid Out $3,000,000 to 16 year old Kyle Giersdorf • This was only 20% of the total Prize Pool • 40 million players attempted to qualify for the competition. • All qualifying players were guaranteed $50,000. • Top three highest earners in eSports Tournaments (not including sponsorship deals): • 3. Anatham Pham from Australia. 20 years old. • Alias: ana • $6,000,000 to date. • 2. Jesse Vainikka from Finland. 27 years old. • Alias: JerAx • $6,500,000 to date. • 1. Jonah Sunstein from Denmark. 26 years old. • Alias: N0tail • $6,900,000 to date. ESPORTS STATS • The Fortnite World Cup saw 2.4 million veiwers in 2019. • Viewers watched for a mind blowing 82 million total hours over 10 weeks. • That’s about 35 hours watched per viewer • In May 2020, Fortnite recorded 350 million users. • In early 2019, the most popular Fortnite Streamer, Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, was making $500,000 … … a month. • Fortnites best month was August 2018 when 78 million new users logged on. • In comparison, the best month for the next best “Battle Royale” style (PUBG) was 1.8 million new users in January 2018. WHY VIDEO GAMES? • Newer games, especially competitive ones, have a huge social/teamwork component. • 63% of gamers prefer to play with others • 75% of Americans have at least one gamer in their households • 65% of American adults play video games • 22% of female baby boomer aged gamers have been playing video games for 25+ years • 34 and 32 are the average ages of female and male gamers, respectively. WHO PLAYS VIDEO GAMES? • Open a door to a whole group of people not interested in team sports • Athletes that play video games regularly: • Xavier Woods (WWE), Cam Newton (NFL), Gordon Hayward (NBA), Damian Lillard (NBA), Demetrius Johnson (UFC), Paul George (NBA), Chuck Lidell (UFC), Anthony Davis (NBA), Eric Berry (NFL), Emmanual Frimpong (Soccer), FORTNITE WHAT IS FORTNITE AND WHY IS IT SO SUCCESSFUL • Fortnite is really 2 different games: • Save the World. • Creative team based building/tower defense game where players fight back waves of Zombies in different scenarios. • This is a paid version of the game that has grossed around $20,000,000 since it’s release in 2017. • Battle Royale. • In this game mode, players parachute onto a virtual island with 100 other players. Players start with no equipment or weapons and must scavange for supplies. Players then try to eliminate the other 99 players to be the last player standing. • This is a free version that grossed $1.8 Billion in 2019 and $2.4 Billion in 2018. HOW DOES THE FREE VERSION MAKE SO MUCH MONEY? • Super Secret Formula… • In game currency called V-Bucks • I have no idea. • Mean spending for players is $85 per player: 58.9% on outfits 18.06% on gliders 13.52% on harvest tool 9.52% on emotes and dance moves OUR TOURNAMENTS SO FAR • All free • Something for kids to do during COVID lockdown • We’ve held 23 Tournaments since 3/24/20 • Average 12 participants per Tournament • Around 70 gamers total TWO TOURNAMENT OPTIONS Battle Royale Mode Tournaments: -Several different options -1v1 Solo-Duos: Players enter the tournament as an individual competitor. Both players enter into the same Duos Mode (2 person team) game. Even though they are on the same team, they compete to see who can compile the most enemy eliminations across two full games. - 2v2 Duo-Squads: Team based version of the above format. Two person teams (Duos) pair up with an opposing two person team to enter a Squads (4 person team) game. TWO TOURNAMENT OPTIONS Creative Mode Tournament This is one of the cooler aspects of Fortnite. Creative Mode is a combination of user created content coupled with sponsored developer/streamer content. There are literally infinite combinations of mini-games including team based objective search and destroy games, creative building challenges, a feature that allows you to build your own island and share it with friends, etc. I want to focus on a user created game called “Box Fight” Box Fight: This can be 1v1 all the way up to 8v8. Players spawn in a random spot in a small map with random weapons and materials. They have 5 seconds to prepare for the game. Once the 5 second timer runs out, it is a head to head battle against the other player(s). HOW DO WE LINK UP THE GAMERS? • Absolute most important aspect of virtual gaming tournaments: Cross Platform Play • Fortnite uses a system called ‘Epic ID.’ • Players must use this, not PSNs, Gamertags, etc. or else the tournament play wont work • Epic IDs might be different than their normal user/gamername. • After we go over the bracket site, I will show some in game screen shots of what the game looks like MEET BATTELFY.NET • Cloud based bracket website just for hosting one-off eSports Tournaments. Click “Sign Up” in the lower left hand corner and follow the instructions to create a new account. I am already signed in here. MAKING A NEW ORGANIZATION CREATING A NEW TOURNAMENT SEEDING THE BRACKET FOR SOLO DUOS THE MATCH PAGE MATCH PAGE CHAT Mike Win’s! Woo Hoo! 1V1 BOX FIGHT IN-GAME 1V1 SOLO- DUOS FINDING EPIC FRIENDS BOX FIGHT PROS • Battlefy is super easy once you get the hang of it • Battelfy will basically progress the tournament on it’s own • Solo-Duos or Duos-Squads is great for recreational players • Box Fight is great for super competitive players • Battelfy can support up to 1024 individuals or teams • Best free platform I have found so far ISSUES • With free tournaments, no incentive to actually participate • Plus side, Battelfy can easily adjust for missing players • Communication • Match Chat works great for Match communication • Terrible for mass communication • Look into Discord – video game focused chat app, can easily be integrated for ‘only admin can report’ scoring, players can submit screenshots, mass communication much easier • Getting players to actually read the rules! • You have to be pretty familiar with individual game mechanics to run tournaments this way OTHER POPULAR GAMES FOR TOURNAMENT PLAY • Kid Friendly • Rocket League • Madden, FIFA, NBA, NHL • Mature • Call of Duty • Warzone • Apex Legends • CS: Go • PUBG • PC only • League of Legends MOBILE GAMES • Call of Duty: Mobile • Hearthstone • Clash of Clans • Clash Royale • Fortnite • Mobile Strike Force WHERE TO GO FROM HERE • Good: Quick Scores: https://www.quickscores.com/ • Better: Ggleague: https://www.ggleagues.com/ • Best: Mission Control: https://www.missioncontrol.gg/ MY VISION • Develop a point system based on placement in the tournaments and turn it into an 8-10 week sport league. • Develop partnerships with other departments to coordinate running “seasons” of specific games with specific formats at the same time throughout the year. • Have the winners/best players from partner facilities participate in several a 3-4 week “Regional Championship.” • Regional winners then compete in a State Championship THANK YOU! Mike Hedlesky [email protected] 410 632 2144 ext. 2509 301 318 1916.