The Fortnite World Cup Open Qualifiers is looking attractive enough for professional players in other games to take a shot at qualifying for the Finals. Richard “KingRichard” Nelson is one of them, and he has confirmed he’ll start practicing Fortnite again to attempt to qualify for the World Cup.
“I decided to attempt Fortnite World Cup Qualifiers,” he wrote. “Hopped on for a bit off stream and I feel like I still got it.”
Related: All players qualified for the Fortnite World Cup Finals.
KingRichard plays for NRG, but he hasn’t competed in Fortnite since early February, when Apex Legends released. He’s moved to Apex and has since then won several championships, mostly the Twitch Rivals and Code Red series, and got a second place at the $500,000 Twitchcon Europe Showdown last weekend with Coby “dizzy” Meadows and Ace.
KingRichard has played in the official online Fortnite tournaments Summer and Fall Skirmish in late 2018 and early 2019. His best placement as a first-place finisher in a Duos competition at Summer Skirmish with Ghost Gaming’s Dylan “Dmo” Moore.
He’s been away from Fortnite for a long time, and the meta has changed a lot since he last played professionally. Even so, KingRichard will have several weeks to go for qualification as there are four weeks left for Solo spots and all five weeks for Duos spots. He has yet to reveal if he’s going for a Duos spot in the World Cup with another NRG player in this weekend’s qualifiers.
If KingRichard qualifies, he’ll join his NRG teammate benjyfishy, who’s got a third-place finisher in the European Solo Qualifiers Finals last week to be the first in NRG to secure a spot in the Finals. With the ally respawn mechanic of Apex now added in Fortnite through Reboot Vans, KingRichard might feel at home to attempt a Duos spot, though his partner has yet to be revealed.
