Tfue and Cloak to skip Fortnite’s ESL Katowice Royale due to low prize money

Fortnite: Battle Royale streamers and star players of FaZe Clan Turner “Tfue” Tenney and Dennis “Cloak” Lepore are refusing their invitation to go to the international championship ESL Katowice Royale in early March, both players have confirmed.

The players are saying the prize money is too low to make the trip to Poland worth it. Cloak said “me and Turner aren’t going to Poland” during a Squads Fortnite match with Tim “TimTheTatman” Betar, Nick “NICKMERCS” Kolcheff, and Jack “CouRageJD” Dunlop. They were talking about the difference between how much they could earn playing tournaments and streaming, and it seems Cloak and Tfue believe they would earn more money by staying home and streaming instead of trying to go for first place in ESL Katowice Royale.

The total prize money of the ESL Katowice Royale will be $500,000 distributed among 23 duos. The duo that gets the first place will earn the lion’s share of $80,000.

Despite the duo’s complaint about money, Tfue has participated in the Secret Skirmish last weekend with a total prize pool of $500,000 as well, with $100,000 for the solo competition and $400,000 for the duos competition. He played matches for two days.

ESL Katowice Royale, however, will last three days and will feature only the duos tournament. That means both Tfue and Cloak would spend three days away from streaming and nearly 24 hours on the plane going to and from the event in Poland. That means they would lose four whole days of streaming just to compete in it, and that’s probably one of the reasons why they are dropping.

Tfue is still the most successful Fortnite streamer on Twitch in terms of hours watched, even ahead of star streamer Tyler “Ninja” Blevins. Since he seems to not care too much about competition to lose his spot in that ranking, fans might not see him and Cloak in the Katowice Royale on March 1.