Rocket League and Fortnite world championships head to Lyon, France

Jonno Nicholson
Image of FURIA Rocket League players competing on stage
Image credit: Rocket League

The Rocket League World Championship and Fortnite Global Championship will take place in Lyon, France in 2025.

Both events — operated by tournament organiser BLAST — will occur across back-to-back weekends in September.

Fortnite’s season-ending event will be held from September 6th to 7th, 2025, at the LDLC Arena in Lyon. Rocket League’s largest tournament will take place a week later, from September 9th to 14th, 2025.

The 2025 Fortnite Global Championship will feature 33 teams competing for a share of a $2m (~£1.6m) prize pool. The qualification process requires teams to achieve high placements at its three Major competitions taking place throughout the year.

Rocket League’s World Championship sees 20 teams from around the world playing for its $1.2m (~£965,188) prize pool. France has seen plenty of success in the car football game with seven former world champions hailing from the country.

This is not the first time that BLAST has hosted FNCS (Fortnite Championship Series) and RLCS’ (Rocket League Champion Series) biggest events of the year in the same location. 2024’s tournaments took place at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

The Fortnite pair of Peter ‘Peterbot ‘ Kata and Miguel ‘Pollo’ Moreno claimed first place in 2024, securing £400,000 (~£321,900).

Last year’s Rocket League World Championship was won by Swiss esports organisation Team BDS which defeated G2 Esports in the Grand Finals to win $300,000 (~£241,419).

In recent years, France has expanded its involvement in hosting esports events after revealing plans to launch a national ecosystem in 2023.

Since then, the country has hosted a Counter-Strike Major in Paris and the LEC Season Finals in Montpellier.

In addition to Rocket League and Fortnite World Championships, 2025 will see the Evolution Championship Series (EVO) host an event in Nice in October, marking the first time the tournament organiser has hosted an EVO event in Europe. Moreover, VALORANT Champions 2025 will be hosted in Paris.

2025 is the first year that the RLCS is using a new format. The tournament circuit will consist of two major events, the addition of a one-versus-one format, and a $5m (~£4.02m) prize pool split across the entirety of the season.

Jonno is a freelance news writer for Esports Insider and has been part of the team since 2019. When he's not sim racing, he enjoys reporting on Call of Duty esports and sim racing's impact on the wider industry.