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Tennis smashes into esports with $500 thousand Fortnite tournament in the Australian Open

Artem Uarabei
14.01.2019

Professional tennis is getting into the esports craze, as one of the sport’s biggest events, the Australian Open, will feature a $500 thousand Fortnite: Battle Royale tournament called the ‘Summer Smash.’

The Summer Smash will consist of two separate Fortnite events, the first being a solo tournament featuring 100 Fortnite professional players and the other being a charity event pro-am event, featuring content creators, athletes and celebrities.

The event will take place on the weekend of January 26, with five qualifying heats of two matches each where the top 20 players from each heat will advance to the Grand Finals.

The Grand Finals be taking place on January 27 and with the finalists duking it out over six matches. The pro-am chairty evemt will begin shortly after the finals.

The solo tournament will have a prize pool of $400,000 up grabs, while $100,000 will be available for charitable donations during the pro-am.

The Summer Smash format will have scoring evenly divided between Victory Royales and eliminations. Check below for the point distribution:

Victory Royale: +3 Points
2nd-3rd Place: +2 Points
4th-10th Place: +1 Point
3-4 Eliminations: +1 Point
5-6 Eliminations: +2 Points
7+ Eliminations: +3 Points

Registration opens on January 9 and can be found on the Australian Open website.

The first 500 eligible players to register online will be invited to compete in one of 5 heats at Margaret Court Arena on Saturday 26th of January 2019. Each heat will consist of two matches, with the top 20 from each heat progressing to a 6 match Grand Finals event a day later.

A 3 match charity Pro-AM duos event will be held after after the solos, and features some of Australia’s best players from gaming and entertainment.

Source: ausopen.com