Fortnite Champion Series
The Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) kicks off next week and will be the next step in competitive Fortnite for 2019. Starting on August 17, there will be a three-round Trios event each weekend for five weeks. Similar to how we ran the Fortnite World Cup Online Opens, we will be advancing the top teams each week from each region to the Season X Finals. With the FNCS, however, we’ll also provide a new path to qualify for the Season Finals. Series Points will be awarded based on each team’s final placement every week during the FNCS to determine team placement on the Series Leaderboard. The top performers on this leaderboard will also advance to the Season Finals. This format values consistency over the course of the season, but still rewards the outstanding performance players make when competing in individual weeks. The Season Finals will be held online for each region on September 20 - 22 to determine who will be crowned the Season X Champions. 

For Season X, we’ll be giving away $10 million across all regions and competitions within the FNCS. We also have more practice opportunities and prizes up for grabs in separate Solo and Trios Cash Cups taking place Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday each week. You can expect a full breakdown of the official rules early next week. We are excited to see how this season of competitive Fortnite plays out!

TL;DR

• $10,000,000+ in prizing 
• The mode of choice will be Trios
• Dedicated prize pools each weekend as well as a chance to qualify for the Season X Championship
• Top teams in each server region will face off on September 20-22 where we’ll crown the Season X Champions
• 2 Factor Authentication is required to be enabled for all rounds in each tournament for Season X. If you need to add this to your account, follow our 2FA instructions here: https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/2fa. The email used for 2FA will be the same one we use for all potential winner communication. 

B.R.U.T.E.
We’ve been monitoring the impact of the B.R.U.T.E. in gameplay and are investigating ways to enhance combat feedback when interacting with the vehicle. In v10.10, we will add a targeting laser that will show the direction the B.R.U.T.E. is aiming its rockets while they are being charged. This laser will have directional audio to help indicate when it’s being pointed at you, even if you’re behind a structure. We’ve also fixed a few mobility bugs that we're allowing players to exploit its boost mechanic.

The B.R.U.T.E. remains within the core game modes (Solo, Duos, and Squads), select Limited Time Modes, and in competitive Arena and Tournament play. We’ll communicate any future iterations to the vehicle as we’re continuing to investigate a few more areas where we can improve combat interactions.

Arena Bug Fix
From Thursday, August 1 until Monday, August 5, there was an issue that caused the Arena playlist to use Season 9 matchmaking buckets instead of Season 10. This meant that due to the refactor in scoring, players were not being appropriately matched into the correct skill buckets, causing there to be little differentiation in skill levels. We pushed out a hotfix and were able to get this resolved, so players should see an increase in game quality, but some might see their queue times increase due to the change.

Payments Update
Last week we updated everyone here about the progress that has been made using our new payment system. We’ve seen a lot of new players start the verification process and successfully see their prize distributed to their Hyperwallet account.  Today, August 9, we will contact players for Online Open Weeks 7-10 to begin the eligibility and tax verification/payment process with the goal of contacting Xbox Cup and Trios Cup players next week.  

With a new system and new players experiencing the system for the first time, we want to make sure we provide tips on how to complete the process efficiently and touch on some rare cases that some players experience due to their country of residence.  

The four tips this week are:

• Accuracy of your Information - We continue to see incorrect or incomplete information provided in the Tax Interview portion of the process that begins at epicgames.com/competitive. If you are a minor (under 18 years of age, or as otherwise determined by your country of residence) your parent or legal guardian must complete the required sections.  The next step of setting up a Hyperwallet account will be blocked if this is not completed correctly.
• Hyperwallet accounts set up - If you are a minor, your parent or legal guardian will also need to set up the Hyperwallet account using the same email provided during the Tax Interview process. If there are any inaccuracies or inconsistencies, Hyperwallet may require additional documentation to verify a potential payee’s identity or close their account.
• Safari Browser Errors - We are aware of an issue that blocks epicgames.com/competitive on Safari browsers for desktop and mobile. As we explore this issue, we suggest players use a different browser to complete their Tax Interview. We also suggest completing the Tax Interview on a desktop when possible.
• Original Payment System Prizes - As noted in the previous blog, anyone who might be missing a payment from an event prior to April 14, 2019, must visit www.fortnite.com/esports to complete their profile. The majority of delays are caused by missing the Prize Acceptance and Release Form along with the Tax Form. These are completed by using a Docusign form that opens in a separate window as a single document for convenience.

Country specific issues:

• Country not listed in Hyperwallet - We have a few countries not supported in Hyperwallet.  Do not worry. We are tracking those cases and working on a solution to issue payment for validated players.  Some players have chosen to receive their payment via US PayPal or convert into a different currency altogether to transfer their funds from Hyperwallet.  
• French players who are minors - If you are a player in France and a minor (under 18 years of age), the processing of your payment will be delayed as we set up next steps with our internal teams to collect additional information required by your local government to finalize verification.