$500k Fortnite Australian Open 2020 Details

The competitive Fortnite scene has been relatively quiet following the Winter Royale Tournament at the end of 2019. While there have been predictions and rumors of a second Fortnite World Cup among other events, nothing had been confirmed for 2020.

Well, competitive Fortnite fans finally have something to look forward to. That something is the Australian Open 2020. The Australian Open 2020 — home of the world-renowned tennis tournament — will host the second annual Fortnite Summer Smash. The Summer Smash is Australia’s largest competitive gaming event. The Summer Smash will be a two-day event held at Melbourne Park from February 1-2 of 2020. The event will consist of a $500K USD prize pool, ranking it among the top prize pools ever awarded at a Fortnite LAN event. Fortnite analyst and caster for the 2020 Summer Smash, AussieAntics, provided a plethora of new details regarding the event in a YouTube video posted late last night.

Day One

Day one of the Summer Smash will feature a Pro-Am style trios competition for charity. Similar to the recent Twitch Rivals tournaments, teams will consist of two professional players alongside one content creator or celebrity. These trios will compete for a piece of the $100K USD prize pool. All winnings will be donated to the winning team’s charity of choice.

Day Two

The remaining $400K USD will be up for grabs on day two. Day two will feature an invite-only solos tournament consisting of top players from around the world. While the invite-only format of the tournament created a bit of drama in the community, it appears that tournament organizers have done their due diligence to ensure that the event will feature only the best of the best. First place in the solos tournament will net an impressive $100K USD. No competitor will walk away empty-handed; last place will still be awarded $2K USD. The scoring format and tournament structure for Summer Smash 2020 have still yet to be officially announced. The 2019 Summer Smash featured five heats, each with 100 players. Competitors participated in two games per heat with the top 20 advancing to the finals.

Confirmed Players

AussieAntics released a tweet on New Year’s day highlighting the players that have confirmed their participation in the 2020 Summer Smash. The list is as follows:

Airwaks, Alecc, Aqua, Breso, Caryion, Colt, CoverH, Criser, Dylan, Jordan, Jesse, Desire, Eshz, Hking, Replays, Forbes, Gheez, Trapped, Gooboz, Hype, Jahlyn, Jynx, Kquid, Lachlan, Lapex, Link, Looter, Maxray, Minkin, Nyhrox, Parpy, Predepression, Psyper, Rel, Repulsegod, Serpennt, Skyla, Slaya, Sorif, Sozmann, Spraz, Sync, Twizz, Valaxies, Volx, WenQian, Wolf, Worthy, Zexrow and Zoreh/

So far, 50 of the 60 confirmed players are from the Oceania region. Notably, X2Twins Jesse will be back to defend his crown. X2Twins Jesse won three straight matches at last year’s Summer Smash and finished in first place. He will look to defend his title in what should be a highly competitive tournament. Other local players such as Volx, Gooboz, Worthy and X2Twins Jordan consistently appear atop the leaderboards in the Fortnite Champion Series and Cash Cup tournaments. The OCE region is often underrated in the competitive Fortnite community. These competitors will look to prove themselves on the main stage and defend their home territory.

AussieAntics suggests that the remaining 40 unconfirmed players will come from outside the OCE region. Of the ten confirmed international players, many are considered to be among the biggest names in all of Fortnite Esports. World Cup Duo Champions aqua and nyhrox will be in attendance. aqua has had success as a solo player and will look to carry the momentum forward to the Summer Smash 2020. In terms of North American representation, so far we have ZexRow and Replays. Both of these players have loaded resumes in competitive Fortnite and will do their best to represent North America at the Australian Open.

Who Else Will Be There?

All that is left is to see what additional high-profile talent the 2020 Summer Smash can reel in from other regions. It is safe to assume that fan favorites such as Mongraal and Fortnite World Cup Solo Champion, Bugha, have both received invitations. benjyfishy has confirmed that he has received an invitation but is still trying to figure out the logistics of attending. Many other top professional players have expressed their interest in receiving an invitation. The Australian Open 2020 is shaping up to be a massive esport event and an amazing start to the new year for competitive Fortnite.

Stay tuned here at GGRecon for more details regarding the Summer Smash tournament at the Australian Open 2020 as they become available.