Was The Fortnite Summer Skirmish Better Than KEEMSTAR UMG Friday Fortnite?

Saturday, July 14th saw the first official esports event sponsored by Epic Games for its popular battle royale game in the Fortnite Summer Skirmish kick off with a $250,000 duos tournament. 

50 teams conisting of high profile Fortnite content creators, professional players and competitive players who have roven their merit in the competitive scene for Fortnite were assembled to battle it out in 10 standard matches. The first team to secure two victory royales would be crowned the champion, while a $6,500 bonus was up for grabs for the team that secured the most eliminations in each match.

Unfortunately, the Fortnite Summer Skirmish 250K duos tournament did not go according to plan, as severe server issues causing major instances of lag forced Epic Games to cancel to the event after four matches. 

The major issues with lag caused a great deal of frustration for the players competing for a share of the $250,000, as it was the direct cause of eliminations for players, especially when they were trying to escape from the storm. A few instances of these frustrations regarding the server and lag issues that plagued the Fortnite Summer Skirmish 250K duos Tournament can be found below. 

This led to a few awkward occurances of competitors directly blaming Epic Games for the sever lag issues on the official broadcast by the developer for the Fortnite Summer Skirmish 250K duos tournament. Many times this was followed by laughter from the three commentators that was not well recieved from the members of the community watching on the official centralized for the event, as they felt these issues should not be addressed by laughter from the development team when it is occuring during a tournament worth hundreds of thousands of dollars.

A major culprit that was pointed to as the fault of the troublesome server issues was the format of the Fortnite Summer Skirmish 250K duos Tournament, as the placement based victory system caused many players to play passively in order to avoid being eliminated and collect a victory royale.

I just don't think this is the proper way to play Fortnite, really is a turn off.

— calvin (@aimbotcalvin) July 14, 2018

Competitive Battle Royale needs to have kill dependent results, period.

— 100T Nadeshot (@Nadeshot) July 14, 2018

Kinda sucks how much money is involved and the games are just so boring and slow. If the results were kill based it would make things so much more enjoyable for the player and viewer alike

— Sam Larew (@Octane_) July 14, 2018

This caused each match and its late game circles to consist of player counts double to triple of what they were intended for, which has been looked upon as the main reason for the sever lag and server issues that interfered with the Fortnite Summer Skirmish 250K duos tournament. 

Who wore it better?

It was not a very strong start to the eight week $8,000,000 Fortnite Summer Skirmish event. It has brought up the discussion that while Saturday's event had the official support of Epic Games behind it, is the grassroots competitive event of the weekly KEEMSTAR UMG Friday Fortnite Tournament better at this very moment?

Now, Epic Games and its Summer Skirmish should not be only judged based on its first week, as the developer has stated that it will be looking to try out new formats every week of the Summer Skirmish and will be addressing the server issues in order to provide the very best competitive Fortnite experience for the players and viewers. 

However, the major troubles that the first Epic Games sponsored esports event regarding the developer's massive $100,000,000 prize pool to fund its battle royale title's esports scene saw in its first outing compared to success that the KEEMSTAR UMG Friday Fortnite Tournament hosted by YouTuber Daniel "KEEMSTAR" Keem and competitive gaming tournament platform UMG has seen with no developer support could be seen as a tad worrisome. 

Look don’t be too hard @EpicGames , they are trying different stuff to find out what works.

But FYI #FridayFortnite works!

— KEEM ? (@KEEMSTAR) July 14, 2018

Working together, KEEMSTAR and UMG helped to build substantial interest in the world of competitive Fortnite with the Friday Fortnite Tournament through their limited use of the game's tools in order to create a format that encourages fast paced and entertaining play. This is compared to what was widely viewed as a not very riviting viewing experience by the viewers of the Summer Skirmish 250K duos tournament. 

Epic Games did look to see the value of having the biggest names and talented players in the community be the competitors of the Summer Skirmish 250K duos tournament, which has seen massive success through the first 10 weeks of the KEEMSTAR UMG Friday Fortnite Tournament. The developer would be wise to incorporate a system that allow high elimination counts by teams to directly help teams win events in the way that the KEEMSTAR UMG Friday Fortnite Tournament has done instead of the only incentive being a bonus prize of money. 

Don't wanna bash Fortnite for their first online tournament with tonnes of influencers/pro's etc but this is why the homie @KEEMSTAR got it bang on with driving for exciting gameplay & kills etc

I'm guessing Epic will figure something out, it's the first week of 8.

— Ethan Payne (@Behzinga) July 14, 2018

It is difficult to directly compare the entirety of Epic Games' Fortnite Summer Skirmish event based on Saturday's duos tournament and the weekly KEEMSTAR Friday Fortnite Tournament, as there are still multiple weeks left that will see a great deal of experimentation by the developer to find the best fit for the competitive scene of its battle royale game and Friday Fortnite has over two months of events under its belt. 

However, with the esports scene for the battle royale title from Epic Games being at such an early stage of its life where it is extremely malleable and is far from its intended form, the KEEMSTAR UMG Friday Fortnite Tournament looks to have found a very successful formula for providing an entertaining competitive Fortnite experience that Epic Games was unfortunately unable to accomplish in the Fortnite Summer Skirmish 250K duos tournament on Saturday, July 14th. 

(cover photo courtesy of Epic Games and KEEMSTAR)