There was a time when Fortnite’s competitive side drew in audiences from all across the world to see who was the best at this battle royale. But esports organizations are being forced to come to terms with the future of the industry and it seems like some don’t see one in Fortnite. With the recent announcement that Become Legends won’t compete in Fortnite in 2023, the future of Epic Games’ esport seems dire.
In a statement posted to Twitter yesterday, Become Legends announced that it won’t be pursuing Fortnite esports in 2023. While companies are dropping and picking up new games all the time, this is especially notable because BL recently won the largest and most publicized Fortnite Championship Series less than two months ago in Raleigh, North Carolina.
An interesting piece of the story is that BL doesn’t seem to support any other esports right now, so the promise that the company is going “in a brand new direction” likely means a new game. With other competitive scenes like VALORANT and League of Legends still doing quite well, the company could look to make a move there or elsewhere.
This news means that BL has dropped one of the winners of the recent FNCS Raleigh event, even though they won hundreds of thousands of dollars weeks ago. If Epic wasn’t already starting to sweat about how organizations feel about its competitive side, it likely is starting to worry, especially when this news comes on the heels of the announcement that Bugha has been dropped from his organization as well.
With Bugha being the highest-earning competitive player in Fortnite’s history, it’s not necessarily a good look that an organization like Sentinels is moving on from supporting him. If Bugha can’t make it work in the current environment, then it seems like other organizations may begin following suit, cutting their Fortnite divisions.
That doesn’t mean the FNCS isn’t still popular, though. It drew in thousands of viewers on Twitch during the past invitational. It could just be that organizations don’t see Fortnite as an esport that’s conducive to success for the entire team. It may be in the future that we stop seeing org-represented players winning the competitions.
As we move forward, there will likely be more emphasis on the individual players winning as more teams take their leave. Regardless, Epic still seems committed to its competitive side, with no sign of slowing down in the near future.
