On Monday, Epic Games announced that it would be putting up $100 million in prizes for the first year of competitive play of its game Fortnite. Besides that staggering number, Epic didn’t release any further information about the structure of that competition or how it would be scored.
To put the money in perspective, in 2017 the top esports had a combined total prize pool of less than $100 million. Previously the top pool in any single competition, dwarfing those in the rest of the industry, was just over $24 million for DOTA 2 Worlds.
Lots of questions remain about how to take a Battle Royale game that pits each player against 99 others and translate that to a fair competition. The primary issue is scoring. Fortnite has a competitive mode that only rewards staying alive to win. The best strategy can be camping—players hiding and keeping out of sight until being forced to move by the closing circle of the storm.
While Fortnite has had success with that format, the system doesn’t create engaging gameplay for viewers. Nobody wants to watch star players crouch in shacks for 10 minutes at a time. A competitive mode needs to reward going on the aggressive and eliminating other players.
That’s where the H1Z1 Pro League comes in. H1Z1 was one of the original Battle Royale games and its scoring system rewards both aggressive play and being able to survive. Something similar could be adapted for Fortnite.
“The nature of a Battle Royale is to try to survive to be last one standing,” said Jace Hall the Chairman of Twin Galaxies—the company behind the H1Z1 Pro League. “Less engagement with other players is to your benefit. It’s a good strategy to last the longest but it is a horrible viewing experience. As we looked at how you capture the spirit of Battle Royale while also driving action, our scoring system evolved from that mindset.”
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That system is simple. Fifteen teams drop into the same map. Teams are ranked in order of how long they survive. Eliminations are worth one point. At the end of the game a multiplier is applied to the elimination score based on where a team finishes. First place doubles the elimination amount, second through fifth multiply it by 1.5. Sixth through tenth earn a multiplier of 1.25 and the final five don’t receive any bonus.
That system naturally creates complex strategy in game. A team avoiding conflict can earn a high multiplier, but that won’t matter if it hasn’t recorded any eliminations.
“It drives action. It makes it more interesting to watch,” Hall said.
One of the other issues with Battle Royale esports is unpredictability. Random number generation, aka RNG, is a natural part of these games, but something most esports try to minimize. RNG determines weapon locations, circle drops, and the effectiveness of weapon damage. Those are all factors that can drastically change a game’s outcome. When there is so much money on the line, chance shouldn’t play a sizable role.
H1Z1 has circumvented that issue by having each match be part of a season long scoreboard. The more times players drop in to a game, the more likely the final season winners will be the most talented team, and not just the luckiest one. That’s also a system that is similar to many traditional sports.
“There is just one large Battle Royale match and a bunch of rounds in between it,” Hall explained. “It’s a lot like NASCAR or Golf. At the end of a match you don’t have a winner; you have a final placement. That creates drama around the season as a whole.”
With the announcement On Monday, Fortnite became a top priority for the majority of esports organizations. But until Epic Games releases new information about the distribution of the prize money and the structure of the competitive system, speculation will abound. However, the format introduced by Twin Galaxies with H1Z1 could be a solid template to double-ramp build off.