The American Video Game League, or AVGL, announced it will be launching the first collegiate Fortnite esports league. To begin, AVGL will host four online pre-season tournaments over the summer before the league begins in the fall.
The format for the league will be 2v2 in a double elimination bracket with each duo joining a party and queuing into squad games, similar to that of UMG‘s weekly “Friday Fortnite”. The announcement also states the rule set will change week to week as AVGL determines what will be the best format to use during the season and will, for now, be played only on PC and Xbox.
The league will add to the 20 online collegiate esports leagues AVGL currently hosts in games like CS:GO, Dota 2, Rocket League, and SMITE. Collegiate players in AVGL leagues have the opportunity to not only earn scholarship money but play in LAN finals on stages at events like DreamHack. AVGL will approach the new league the same and hopes to add a LAN component to the competitions as it develops.
Victor Suski, Chief Executive Officer of AVGL tells Esports Insider adding Fortnite to its tournament platform was a simple decision: “We determine which games to support based on two factors: Feedback from our community and our ability to provide the highest quality competitive experience for the game. Players were very eager to participate in collegiate Fortnite competitions. We have the structure to optimize our Fortnite offerings including a team of Fortnite experts and a tournament platform for the competitions.”
Fortnite esports is gaining traction as Epic announced it will be investing $100m into the first year of esports development including a World Cup in 2019. Many institutions, like Ashland University, are noticing the trend and adding it to their programs.
Esports Insider says: AVGL is one of the leading names in collegiate esports in the United States and with their investment in leagues in other popular titles it’s no surprise they’ve decided to become to first to venture into collegiate Fortnite competitions.
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