Fortnite Australian Open Summer Smash 2020: Results, Highlights and More
Outside of DreamHack Winter 2019, It had been nearly six months since we last witnessed a notable LAN event for Fortnite. The silence was finally broken shortly after the new year when the Australian Open announced the return of the second annual Summer Smash. Held at Melbourne Park from February 1- 2, the Summer Smash is Australia’s largest competitive gaming event. With a $500K USD prize pool, the Summer Smash 2020 was among the largest prize pools ever awarded at a LAN event in Fortnite history. Let’s talk about how it all went down:
The Main Event
The long-awaited return of competitive Fortnite did not disappoint. The invite-only solos tournament was as tight a competition as you could ask for. With multiple competitors neck and neck, it all came down to the final match of the tournament.
In a storybook ending, Breso pulled off the cinderella upset and claimed victory. The Queensland native picked up kill after kill in the final moments of the match, culminating in an impressive Victory Royale. The clutch performance launched him up the leaderboards as he firmly took ahold of first place and $100K USD in prize money.
In a tournament stacked with fame and talent, Breso was surely one of the lesser-known players in the entire tournament. Breso will go down in Fortnite history for his performance. In the game’s three-year lifespan, Breso is the first controller player ever to achieve first place at a major LAN event. In a game that has historically been dominated by mouse and keyboard players, Breso pulled off what many previously thought of as the impossible. Breso is a product of a new era of Fortnite. As Fortnite has gone on, more and more controller players are proving that they can compete with the best of the best, regardless of input method. With Breso leading the way, it will be interesting to see if any mouse and keyboard users consider switching to controller.
Oceania (OCE) as a region should be proud. Extremely talented players from around the world were in attendance at the Summer Smash. However, Oceania held it down and defended their region. The majority of the players in the top 20 stem from the OCE region.
Outside of the OCE region, some household names from other regions showed up and performed in enemy territory. CLG Symetrical from the NA West started the tournament off with a Victory Royale that powered him to a third-place finish. Fortnite World Cup Duo Champion, Nyhrox, proved that he can perform as a solo — finishing in fourth.TSM ZexRow continued his hot streak by earning eighth place. For ZexRow, this is the cherry on top of his first and second-place finishes in the FCS Season X Grand Finals and the FNCS Chapter 2 - Season 1 Grand Finals, respectively. Other notable names in the top 20 include EpikWhale, Benjyfishy and Jaomock.
Click to enlargeThe Pro-Am Tournament
$100K USD of the $500K USD was reserved for the Pro-Am tournament on Day One. This tournament was a trios tournament consisting of two professional players and one content creator or celebrity on each team. The grand prize was $30K USD, donated to various charities chosen by the winning players.
When the final results were in, it was the fan-favorites of Mrfreshasian, Lachlan and Enschway that would take home the title of champions. This makes back-to-back victories for Mrfreshasian, as he won the Pro-Am event at the Australian Open Summer Smash last year in 2019. The full leaderboard can be viewed below:
Click to enlargePerhaps the highlight of the entire Summer Smash was the conga line formed in match two of the Pro-Am tournament. Competitors such as LazarBeam, Jynx and Rel all switched to the gingerbread skin and met up to form a conga line in the middle of the map. Shortly into their fun, pro player Zayt showed up and started to massacre the innocent players. After picking up a couple kills along with loud boos from the crowd, Zayt let up. It was an amusing and hysterical moment in what is typically a serious competition. Zayt took to Twitter afterward to defend himself, claiming that he didn’t realize what was happening. Whether true or not, the kills helped him and his team secure $15K USD for charity to go along with a third-place finish.
The Summer Smash Cup
To accompany the Summer Smash 2020, Epic Games hosted an online competition to give the fans at home an opportunity to get in on the action. Deemed the Summer Smash Cup, the event ran from 7pm AEDT - 10pm AEDT on the same days as the live tournament. Players on the OCE and Asia servers could participate for a chance to win in-game rewards based on placement and elimination points. Fans were beyond excited upon hearing this news. In-game rewards for competitive play have always been a highly requested feature but it was scarcely ever implemented prior to this event.
The addition of in-game rewards netted great results. According to Fortnite Tracker, Over 440,000 players participated in the Summer Smash Cup on February 2 alone. 314,000+ participated on February 1. Compare this to the 10.9K OCE and the 21.6K Asia participants in the most recent Solo Cash Cup. The opportunity for free, in-game items obviously enticed participation across all regions and achieved what Epic sought out to do — promote the Summer Smash event.
The rewards breakdown was as follows:
- Top 10% earns the Komplex outfit
- Top 25% earns the Street Shine pickaxe
- Top 50% earns the Paint Splash wrap
In addition, all participants received three Australian themed sprays.
Click to enlargeThat about wraps it up for the Australian Open Summer Smash 2020. Overall, the event was a huge success and sets a good precedent for competitive Fortnite in 2020. To stay up to date on Fortnite news, tips & tricks, tournament recaps and more, stay tuned here at GGIntel.
Images via Epic Games & Australian Open