How Does Scoring Work in Fortnite Tournaments?

How scoring works in Fortnite tournaments isn’t too complicated! The system is the result of development over all six Fortnite Chapters. As it has grown, we’ve had more rules to try and better refine how players get ahead in Fortnite esports. Battle Royale as a whole present some unique challenges to traditional esports formats.

We can’t just get points for the same things as normal games. In a lot of esports, the win conditions are the exact same. But in Fortnite it’s different. If we used the same point system as pubs matches, it would just be the winner of a game who got anything. Players would just sit in boxes and refuse to ever take fights.

Although, even with the current Fortnite tournament scoring, players still sit in boxes and avoid fights. Just they have to deal damage too. Some of the more complex rules do try to address that. This is how scoring works in Fortnite tournaments.

How Does Scoring Work in Fortnite Tournaments?

Scoring in Fortnite tournaments works quite simply once you understand it. It’s a system where players get points for two main things. Eliminations, and placement.

Those are largely the two things which matter. Where you come in a game, and how many people you kill. The exact scoring varies depending on how far into the game you come. This is our current set up for Fortnite points, but we have had some different systems over the seasons too. These are the ways you can earn points if you enter Fortnite tournaments and perform well:

Placement

Placement is maybe the most important factor for how scoring works in Fortnite tournaments. This is which position in the game that you come.

In a pubs Fortnite match, only one placement matters. The Victory Royale. However, like in Fortnite Ranked, tournaments have a bit more nuance. The Royale winner still walks away with the most points, anything else would be silly. But major points are picked up across the top 10. Different tournaments have different cut offs for the placement you need to reach to get any points. Solo Fortnite tournament scoring tends to cut off lower.

Some cut off at the top half, others limit it to a lower amount. Typically , it’s once you break the top 10 teams where points get worthwhile. A lot of teams avoid risky fights until they reach a base level of placement points, to guarantee it isn’t a wasted game. For others, jumping into fights can be its own reward thanks to points for eliminations.

Elims

The other major half of how scoring works in Fortnite tournaments is eliminations. Killing other players. A high kill count is always good for bragging rights in Battle Royale. But with the Fortnite tournament scoring system, they count towards getting the prize money too.

Elims typically count for just a single point, per player. In Trios, a team wipe is still only worth 3. But it does guarantee they don’t reboot and continue to hold you back from placement points. The single point isn’t a lot, but it adds up. Some of the best Fortnite players are noted for getting tons of points from kills.

Typically, elims won’t outweigh placement though. But as players get more kills, they also get more placement points. It works pretty well as a balance.

Other Objectives

From time to time, Epic has tested out other additions to the Fortnite tournament scoring. These have typically been those mid-game objectives they insert. Not a huge challenge, but adding a point incentive does mean more players chase it out.

This was done in the past for features like the Recon Towers and the Rift in POI. But neither stuck around as part of the scoring. Epic could bring back similar incentives in the future though. The Fortnite tournament scoring changes from event to event, this is just the general rules they fit.

Storm Surge

One factor to keep in mind is Storm Surge. While you don’t get any extra points for dealing damage to other players, storm surge is probably the central mechanic to Fortnite tournaments these days.

This is a mechanic where players will take automatic storm damage if they haven’t dealt enough damage to enemy players. In each storm circle, the game has a limit to how many players can be alive. If the round is over that limit, you get storm surge dealing auto damage to players with the least dealt, to pick off the weakest squad.

This rarely activates in normal games. But in tournaments it’s pretty much every round. Storm Surge means players have to seek out fights, no matter what the risk is. The alternative is to die to storm, and also miss out on placement points. It’s a mechanic that’s being refined right now.

Mechanics like this mean there’s more complexity to the Fortnite tournament scoring than just staying alive. But since staying alive is ultimately what wins tournaments, players still focus on it. The winners of the last Global Championship explained their complex strategy as take height, don’t die.