Fortnite’s had a big update lately, but if you’re mainly into Reload you’ll be waiting for the new map. If you want to play it a little early, you have the chance! Provided you place highly enough in the Early Access Cup Fortnite.
Over the weekend, a new type of Fortnite tournament will be held. It has a similar format to Reload Cash Cups that we’ve seen before, but with a key difference. This cup isn’t about a competition for early access to features. Instead, players are just competing to get a shot at playing content. Early Access. It’s a strange way to decide who gets test access to something as big as a new map, but it will mean plenty get to check it out.
This isn’t one of the Fortnite events that only gives prizes to the best Fortnite players. A decent amount of the higher performers will get the prize in the Early Access Cup Fortnite. How will it work and how can you get involved?
Early Access Cup Fortnite Explained
Alongside the Fortnitemares update, we’ve seen confirmation of a new map coming for Fortnite Reload. This will be a Fortnitemares themed map, full of spooky POIs and bringing the event to modes outside of Battle Royale. Epic is taking a different approach to things for early access though.
This time, playing the map early will be a prize in a tournament. The top percentage of entrants will get an early access session on the new map! It’s a way to reward the top performing players, or the most dedicated. Reload has definitely become the home of sweats in Fortnite. So, seeing a tournament like this being the way to play a map early is a good fit.
Outside of the price, the Early Access Cup Fortnite is a pretty standard Cash Cup! This is how it’ll work if you’re hoping to try and get into the new map early.
Early Access Cup Fortnite Scoring
The Early Access Cup Fortnite is a Reload tournament. It means death is a bit cheaper. However, there is a pretty solid scoring system to adjust for things like that. This is how it works:
- Victory Royale – 10 Points
- 2nd – 9 Points
- 3rd – 8 Points
- 4th – 7 Points
- 5th – 6 Points
- 6th – 5 Points
- 7th – 4 Points
- 8th 3 Points
- 9th – 2 Points
- 10th – 1 Points
- Elims – 1 Point
Who Gets Early Access?
The tournament is featuring a prize of access to a new Reload Map. This will happen in a special session. 25% of all Duos get early access. You have to place in the top quarter of the leaderboard.
This makes it tricky to know just exactly where you need to come. It’s not like other tournaments where the top thousand in the bigger regions get a prize and there’s a clear cut off. Not only do we not know what prize threshold gets players over the line, we don’t even know which placement will cut it until the end. It all depends on how many Duos enter.
Once the tournament gets started, we should have a better idea of what the top 25% cut-off is. Or at least what it was in other regions. Until then, the mission for the Early Access Cup Fortnite is mainly going to be to just perform as well as possible.
When is the Tournament?
When will it take place? This is all happening with quite a quick turnaround. Players can enter the first session on October 4th, and the second on October 5th. A fast weekend tournament, before players actually get to try the map next week.
Who Can Take Part in the Early Access Cup Fortnite?
Eligibility for Fortnite tournaments has been a bit complicated since Epic cracked down on cheaters. This is a Duos format event, so you need a partner to play with. Beyond that, these are the requirements to take part in the Early Acces Cup Fortnite:
- MFA Enabled
- Account over the Minimum level
- Over 13
This isn’t one of the tournaments that requires you to have been in a set number of Fortnite tournaments in the past. It’s treated as a non-cash tournament, so it will be a lot more open. Hopefully this doesn’t mean it’s open season for Fortnite cheaters to return!
When Does the Map Release for Everyone Else?
If you can’t quite manage to climb up to the top 25% of competitors in the Early Access Cup Fortnite, when can you actually play the map? We don’t have a firm release date yet. The second Fortnitemares update on October 9th will add it to the game privately, for that early access session.
We could see it launch the week after though, where everyone can play. Leakers think this will be the only map in rotation for its opening weeks, so everyone will eventually have a chance to check it out. Even if they don’t win the Early Access Cup Fortnite is holding.
