FaZe Clan introduces Solar Opposites Elite Cup Fortnite tournament

Starting this Friday, July 1, FaZe Clan will host the Solar Opposites FaZe Elite Cup aiming to showcase North America’s best Fortnite talent. The tournament will feature Fortnite amateurs and professional players in a battle for a share of the $50,000 prize pool. 

The event will be held in partnership with Hulu’s TV show Solar Opposites and with the tournament production company Practice Server. 

This marks the second time FaZe Clan is hosting the Elite Cup. The first edition of the event took place in April 2021 and featured a Trio tournament with a $25,000 prize pool.

FaZe Elite Cup structure, prizes and schedule

The Solar Opposites FaZe Elite Cup will be split into two competitions — solos and duos — with each competition featuring 30 participants and its own prize. While the Solo finals will offer $10,000 in prize money, Duo finals will offer the rest of the total prize pool — $40,000. However, it is not yet clear how the prizes will be distributed, as the prize pool breakdown hasn’t yet been specified by the organizers. 

The first day of the event will be dedicated to open qualifiers, followed by a Grand Final lobby for solos on Saturday and a Grand Final lobby for duos on Sunday to determine who’s North America’s top Fortnite talent. Here’s the schedule: 

• July 1 (Qualifier): 11 am PT / 8 pm CEST 
• July 2 (Solos): 3 pm PT / 12 pm CEST
• July 3 (Duos): 3 pm PT / 12 pm CEST

The FaZe Elite Cup will be broadcast on FaZe Clan’s Twitch channel as well as on Practice Server’s Twitch channel. 

FaZe giveaway 

As a part of the event, the org will host multiple spectator giveaways throughout the event on Twitch and Discord. Viewers can win FaZe Clan merchandise and cash vouchers to the org’s online store, as well as other unspecified products. 

All viewers have to do in order to become eligible for the giveaway is to enter a specific keyword mentioned on the stream within a specific time frame in the FaZe Twitch chat or in FaZe Hub Discord Server. Viewers can enter twice — once via each platform.

Can community initiatives help Fornite esports grow? 

Despite Fortnite being one of the most popular gaming titles, its esports division never quite developed in a way Epic Games presumably intended. One of the factors that likely halted the growth of Fornite esports was the nature of the game, as tournaments usually feature too many players to root for and the scene’s top names change too often for fans to find a favourite. Not even millions of dollars invested into FNCS competitions by Epic helped Fortnite esports to reach the heights the developer had hoped for.

However, the Fortnite community seems to be invested in the growth of competitive Fortnite, as multiple recent initiatives might suggest. Besides FaZe Clan’s Elite Cup, multiple well-known content creators recently held their own Fortnite Cups, including Dr. Disrespect, or Sommerset. Sommerset’s $10k Creator Cup that’s been held on June 23 was hosted together with Epic Games and was a part of The Road to FNCS Invitational 2022, Fortnite’s largest LAN tournament set to take place in November. 

With the community taking initiative into their own hands and even joining forces with Epic in order to support and integrate the competitive Fortnite scene, who knows, maybe there’s still room for Fortnite esports to grow.

Header: FaZe Clan