On Feb. 24, 16-year-old professional Fortnite player JarkoS won $11,000 from Week 1 of the ESL Katowice Royale, which consisted of only Polish players. JarkoS’ first place finish at the solo event landed him an invite to play solos in Week 2 of the event on March 1. Week 2, however, won’t be a breeze for him—alongside JarkoS will be 99 of the world’s best Fornite players, all looking to take home as much of the $500,000 dollar prize pool as possible. Let’s take a look a quick look at this weekend’s tournament.

When and where?
The international segment of the ESL Katowice Royale, which takes place Friday, March 1 through Sunday, March 3, will be held in Katowice, Poland alongside ESL’s CS:GO and Starcraft II tournaments. It will be broadcast live on Fortnite’s official Twitch channel all three days at about 6 a.m. ET.

What is the format?

Solo and duo competitions will be held in this competition. Friday has seven solo games with a total prize pool of $100,000.

The duos tourney, with a cumulative money pool of $400,000 dollars, is the weekend’s featured event. Seven games will be played both Saturday and Sunday.


Compared to the Winter Royale, the point system is more progressive. The Katowice Royale holds a higher elimination incentive, with each one resulting in five points. Additionally, every player placing in the top 50 percent will receive at least one placement point. More information on the rules can be seen here.

The players

Fortnite is really anyone’s to win, which is usually the case in RNG-driven games. All of the competitors play at the highest level with phenomenal mechanics and game sense. In a field where players are matched up against opponents they have never seen, where their favorite landing spots can be contested and where a pump shotgun prove to be the ultimate difference, here’s who to watch for:

NA

Safe bet: Ghost Gaming

Represented by four North American players  (Dylan “DMO” Moore, Timothy “Bizzle” Miller, Rocco “Saf” Morales and Aydan “Aydan” Conrad) and two EU players (Liam “Kamo” Fillery and Issa “Issa” Rahim) at the Katowice Royale, Ghost Gaming looks to continue their dominance of the Fortnite competitive scene. At the recent Secret Skirmish event, the top of the leader boards were occupied by Bizzle, Saf and DMO. In the solos event. Bizzle and Saf placed first and second, respectively.  Arguably more impressively, Saf, DMO and Bizzle placed first, third and fourth in the duos event with random partners. Now with their usual partners—Bizzle with DMO and Saf with NRG Zayt— the players will be more comfortable and undoubtedly have a chance at placing highly.

Sleeper: SEN Aspect

Nick “Aspect” McGuire, signed to esports organization Sentinels, recently came in eight place at the solo event of the Secret Skirmish and is 50th in total earnings. Aspect figures to do well under a different point format. The seven eliminations he had in Game 1 of the Secret Skirmish translates to 35 points in the Katowice format, a net increase of 32 points.

EU/Other:

Safe bet: Atlantis Mitr0

The ninth highest earning player in Fortnite history, Dmitri “Mitr0” Van de Vrie is known for his dominance of the EU competitive scene. He has placed first twice during the Summer Skirmish and twice during the Fall Skirmish, and has several top-five finishes in the Summer, Fall and Winter tournaments. Expectations are high for a player who many consider the best in the game.

Sleeper: Svennoss

Svennoss, though a fairly popular name, is my sleeper pick for EU solos. Sven has numerous top-10 finishes in Fortnite’s skirmishes, including a second place solo and first place duo placement. He is twenty-third in total earnings, but seventh not counting American players.

@Svennoss on Twitter

As for duos, expect the Solary and Atlantis teams to be in the running for high placement. Each duo has solid chemistry and good communication, and are some of the highest earners in Fortnite competitive. But don’t sleep on the Virtus Pro team of Artur “7ssk7” Kurshin and Jamal “Jamside” Saidayev. The duo, part of a once world record 57 elimination squad win, placed first at Week 1 of the EU Fall Skirmish and has earned a combined $192,625 from tournaments.

A full list of players competing in the tournament can be found here.

Season 8 Update:

As with the Winter Royale, the Katowice Royale will take place just after a major update to the game.  Popular POIs such as Wailing Woods, Motel and Containers, which are some players’ go-to landing spots, cease to exist after the season eight map update.

Players competing are upset with the removal of these locations. Jake “Liquid Poach” Brumleve, showed his displeasure in a series of tweets on Feb. 28. “Where is containers I don’t think the map is updated,” tweeted Poach, later adding “I’m at 3 day $500k tournament and I’m ready! Oh, wait my drop spot just got removed.”

Poach’s teammate, Thomas “Liquid 72hrs” Mulligan, also expressed his displeasure with the removal of his primary landing spot, Wailing Woods. “I flew to Poland and my drop spot got destroyed NICEEEEE GET ME IN THE CANNON YEE HAWWW,” said 72hrs in a tweet where he also pokes fun at the recent addition of cannons.

In addition to the POI changes, Epic Games removed Sneaky Snowman, Chiller Grenade, and, much to the pleasure of competitive players, the X-4 Stormwing. “No planes, a lot of audio improvements, one non-rng mobility possibility, new pinging system and a bunch of QoL changes are the positives I see in this patch,” said Poach, a harsh critic of planes during Season 7.

The Katowice Royale will be Fortnite’s most diverse and inclusive tournament to date. According to the official ESL Katowice team list, players are representing 28 countries from five continents: North America, South America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. No matter who wins, the representation and point format are positive steps for the competitive Fortnite scene.

References: Players real names, tournament earnings, and placements were taken from esportsearnings.com

This article was written by Sasha Podzorov