Raleigh to host first in-person Fortnite tournament since 2019 World Cup

Epic Games has announced the city of Raleigh will host the 2022 Fortnite Champion Series Invitationals later this year, the first major in-person competitive Fortnite event since 2019.

The video game tournament will be held Nov. 12-13 at the Raleigh Convention Center with a $1 million prize pool. The Cary-based video game company will invite top Fortnite two-player teams from around the world to compete.

“We’re thrilled that they’ve looked at their hometown to host their event,” said Ed Tomasi, co-chair of the Greater Raleigh Esports Local Organizing Committee (GRELOC). “It’s not just a matter of us being convenient. It’s a matter of that the greater Raleigh market is really one of the best markets in the world to host video gaming and esports events.”

The Fortnite Invitational is the latest in a series of video game tournaments held in the city in recent years. Halo and XP League both hosted competitions in Raleigh in 2021 and Rainbow Six: Siege held a tournament here in 2019. Raleigh also hosted the players in the online PUBG Mobile competition in 2020.

GRELOC is part of the Greater Raleigh Sports Alliance, which is part of the Greater Raleigh Convention and Visitors Bureau, which looks to increase esports events and competitions in Wake County. The town of Cary is working to build a $193 million sports complex that would include a 4,000-seat arena. The News & Observer previously reported the proposed stadium isn’t meant to compete with Raleigh for events but to complement them.

Tomasi credits a new economic incentive in the state’s budget focused on esports events in securing the Fortnite Invitational in Raleigh.

The last in-person Fortnite event was the 2019 Fortnite World Cup Finals which drew 19,000 fans across three days at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. In-person events have been on pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and Epic said it may reschedule or change plans if public health trends change.

Information about how to attend or who is invited will be released in the coming months by Epic Games.

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