#FreeFortnite Cup Taking Place August 23

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Epic is stepping up its conflict with Apple via the #FreeFortnite Cup, a one-day tournament doling out prizes that parody the tech giant
There’s been a video, there have been lawsuits, and now in another attack on Apple for what has been described as monopolistic practices, Epic has put together a one-day-only Fortnite tournament, with almost all rewards poking fun at the now two-trillion dollar company.

Dubbed the #FreeFortnite Cup, any and all players of the massively popular free-to-play battle royale title will be able to compete. Entering is as simple as starting the game up on your device of choice – yes, even on iOS devices if you still have the game downloaded – and queuing up in the #FreeFortnite Cup Playlist. But this isn’t your average week or day-long tournament, no this one is only lasting four hours on August 23. It’s not clear when this four hour period begins; if it’s a specific time set by Epic or if it’s a timer that starts counting down once you get into your first match. You can find a full list of rules for the tournament here.

Players have 12 matches total to compete in the tournament, and can only compete in solo mode. But it’s not just the victor of each match that gets the spoils, everyone gets a slice of this cake. For every three minutes you survive, you earn a single point. Each elimination of another player also earns you one point. But score a win and you’ll earn yourself ten points.

All of your friends. Fabulous prizes. And one bad apple. We’re droppin the #FreeFortnite Cup on August 23.

Check out our blog for full info: https://t.co/BFpiMQoWID
— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) August 21, 2020

Of course, what are points worth without prizes? Scoring a mere ten points over the course of the Cup nets you one prize that pokes fun at Apple – the Tart Tycoon Outfit. But the real gear is for 20,000 of the top-scoring players. Competitors that score that high earn themselves a real cap, sporting Fortnite‘s lama colored like the original Macintosh logo, with the text Free Fortnite.

But there’s one more group of prizes, exclusive to the top 1,200 players in the #FreeFortnite Cup. This group of top performers will earn one of the following: an Alienware gaming laptop, a Samsung Galaxy Tab S7, a OnePlus 8, a PS4 Pro, Xbox One X or a Nintendo Switch.

While this tournament is a great way to get folks to play Fortnite, it’s also a tactic for Epic to spread their Free Fortnite hashtag. While this dispute started in the public eye, with Epic recruiting its player base to pressure another company into bending, this tournament takes the ongoing conflict between these two tech giants to another level. It’s schoolyard goading at the billion-dollar level, although it’s not clear how Apple will respond. Besides removing Fortnite from the App Store, Apple is also moving to remove Epic’s developer accounts and cut Epic off from iOS and Mac development tools.