Fortnite pro Benjyfishy says the game’s competitive scene could ‘start dying out’ due to reduced prize pools

After Epic Games revealed shrinking prize pools for competitive Fortnite events, NRG Esports’ Benjy “benjyfishy” David Fish shared his outlook today regarding the state of the game’s esports scene.

Benjyfishy pointed to reduced prize pools for the upcoming competitive Fortnite season as less incentive to “grind the game 24/7.” His concern isn’t for his short-term financial gain; he thinks the reduced prize pools will hurt the game over time, since lesser-known players won’t be able to justify the time they trade for financial gain.

“[A]nd with prize pools constantly getting less and less its gonna be even harder for unknown players to start making a living out of the game which will eventually make them want to stop playing and the comp scene will slowly start dying out if it carries on,” the pro Fortnite player wrote.

Epic revealed the earnings to be handed out at some of the events, including an upcoming EU Cash Cup. The prize pool drop-off in 2021 is staggering, though. According to Fnatic’s Chris “crr” Williams, one victory in 2020’s trio Cash Cups would equal five 2021 victories.

Epic posted a brief overview of its 2021 plans for the FNCS in December. The FNCS will be standardized to trios, but the developer also stated that it will include weekly tournaments. Currently, there is no plan for LAN events or a 2021 iteration of the lucrative Fortnite World Cup. Last year’s World Cup was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic as well.