'Fortnite' to Rip Off 'Dancing With the Stars' With a Pro-Am E3 Competition
Somebody better do The Carlton.
It looks like Fortnite is copying the premise of Dancing With the Stars by pairing up professionals with celebrities for a heated competition in just a few weeks.
On Tuesday, Epic Games announced via Twitter and its Fortnite Blog that they’d be hosting a 100-player competition at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3 2018). “50 pros and 50 celebrities pair up to earn the ultimate Victory Royale — $3,000,000 in charity prize money that they will donate to their charity of choice,” the official blog post reads.
If you don’t know, Dancing With the Stars applies the same pro-am formula for a live reality TV show in which professional dancers pair up with various celebrities and compete to earn the best scores from judges and viewers alike. Much like in DWTS, the celebrities in this competition include everything from athletes and actors to musicians and other pop culture celebrities. The winner of a Fortnite: Battle Royale match, however, will be much easier to determine and a dance competition.
Here’s a look at the first five pairings that have been announced, which of course includes big Fortnite pros like Ninja and Myth.
We can safely assume that the match (or matches) will be played in Fortnite’s Duos mode that puts 50 teams of two players each into the same game. That also means there are 45 other teams that we’ll learn about in the coming weeks, so there’s no telling who might participate. It does seem totally wrong, though, that Ninja is playing with Marshmello and not his buddy Drake.
The official announcement does also note: “This prize money is not included in the $100,000,000 planned for Fortnite Esports.” This refers to the Monday announcement that developer Epic Games set aside $100 million in prize money for the upcoming inaugural Fortnite esports season.
This epic showdown will be live-streamed starting at 6:30 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday, June 12th via Twitch, and only one pairing will get the $3 million for the charity of their choice.
