Fortnite World Cup: Qualifiers, finals and top players - What you need to know

The Fortnite World Cup kicks off this weekend!

The Online Opens for the Fortnite World Cup kick off on Saturday 12 April.

Players from all over the world can compete to gain the title of the world's greatest Solo and Duo Fortnite player!

There's a $30 million prize pool up for grabs in the Grand Finals which will be held in the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in New York from 26 - 28 July.

But, who will win the ultimate Victory Royale?!

Top player Ninja and DJ Marshmello took part in the Fortnite Pro Am tournament last year.

Who can play?

The Online Opens qualifying stage of the Fortnite World Cup is open to all players - but the following rules apply.

• Players must be older than 13 years old

• If a player is under 18 they need consent from a parental or legal guardian to take part.

• Players must have no violations, and be on good terms with Epic Games.

• Your account level must be at least 15.

• Players who compete in the Finals will be required to enable 2FA and link their account to an Epic ID. This adds an additional layer of match security.

Other than that, any player on PC, console, or mobile should be able to take part in qualifiers and fight for a spot to play the Finals.

However, players should watch out because some of the top-ranked players from all around the world will also be competing!

The Online Opens will switch between Solo and Duo matches each weekend.

How do the stages work?

For the Online Opens, there will be 10 weekly qualifier events starting on April 13 and running until June 16.

Each qualifier will have a prize pool of $1 million.

There will be five weeks of Solo tournaments and five weeks of Duos, alternating between the two each week.

Only the top 100 Solo players and top 50 Duos will go through to the Fortnite World Cup 2019 Finals in July.

Players from all over the world can compete

Players will be split into five separate regions based on where they are playing: North America, Europe, Asia, Brazil, and Oceania.

Competition will be tough, as there are only a certain number of top spots to qualify for the finals.

Let's take a closer look at how the qualifying stages will work...

Qualifiers - stage 1

The process starts with the Arena Mode, which will always be available starting with the v8.20 update that will be released this week.

Players will have to earn as many points as they can to reach the top of Arena Mode, and qualify for the Open tournament.

Qualifiers - stage 2

The Open tournaments will take place every Saturday, and players who qualified from the Arena Mode will be able to play in them.

Players will have three hours to score as many points as they can in up to 10 matches.

The top 3,000 players from each region move up to the final stage, the Open Finals on Sundays.

Qualifiers - stage 3

Every Sunday, the top players from each region will play up to 10 matches in three hours, and try to score as many points as they can.

After the three hours is up, Epic Games will say which players qualify to receive prize money, and how much they earned from the $1 million prize pool of that week.

Players Zayt and Saf recently won the Duos title at the ESL Katowice Royale, during the Intel Extreme Masters Katowice 2019 event.

Top players to look out for

With the best players in the world going head-to-head to join in the fun, who are the players who could make it all the way to the finals?

MrSavageM and Benjyfishy.

One of the top Duo pairings to keep an eye on is: MrSavageM and Benjyfishy.

Benjyfishy, is from the UK and is 15 years old. His teammate Mr SavageM is 14 years old and is from Norway.

The two placed first in the World Cup Warm-up event for Europe, and ranked highly in the Luxe and Scallywag cups.

A formidable duo indeed!

Bizzle and Dmo.

Hot on their heels will be American Duo Bizzle and Dmo.

They were part of the team that won the North American Fortnite Pro League in 2018.

They also ranked highly in the North American World Cup Warm-up and Luxe cup.

Players Mongraal and Mitr0 are a mighty force to be reckoned with

Mongraal and Mitr0

Also posing a big threat is Duo Mongraal and Mitr0.

Kyle "Mongraal" Jackson is 14 years old and from the UK, and Dimitri "Mitr0" is 16 years old and from Holland.

Kyle was one of the youngest people to be hired to pro esports team Team Secret, at 13, and Mitr0 is one of the highest earning players in the pro-scene.

The Duo came first in the European Luxe Cup, and third in the European World Cup warm-ups.

Other stars to watch out for

Magin

Max "Magin" Merrien is 16 years old and is from the UK.

He's part of the pro-team, Team Atlantis (alongside Mitr0)

Magin came second in the Solo tournament at the Katowice Royale recently.

Kinstaar

Huynh Duong Huynh is a 19-year-old from Switzerland, and is part of French pro-team Solary.

Kinstaar came third in the Solo tournament at the Katowice Royale.

Tfue, posing with DJ Marshmello, has a huge following online

Tfue

Turner "Tfue" Tenney is 22-years-old and lives in America.

He's part of the Faze Clan pro-team.

Tfue came seventh in the Secret Skirmish, and has over 10 million followers on YouTube.

Vinny1x

Vinny Gilgan belongs to pro-team TSM (Team SoloMid)

He's from California and came first in the Solo tournament at the Katowice Royale.