Fortnite competitive updates for Chapter 2: Season 4 detailed, targets 'Clout Farmers'

Epic has shared a new breakdown of what they're doing on the competitive side of Fortnite. There are a number of tournaments in the works, all aimed at seeing who's the best of the best. Along with that, Epic is clamping down on both cheaters and those who claim to cheat. Check out the full details below.

Hey Fortnite competitors!

With last week’s arrival of Season 4, we wanted to share what you can expect on the competitive front this season — including the new Hype leaderboard, upcoming tournaments, rule clarifications, enforcement policies, and more.

FORTNITE CHAPTER 2 SEASON 4 HYPE LEADERBOARD

In case you missed it, we’ve built a global Hype leaderboard that updates in real time.

Keep an eye out for your favorite Fortnite players and rising stars.

UPCOMING FORTNITE TOURNAMENTS

We’re making adjustments to our tournament offerings this season to keep things fresh. We’re also working to better incorporate third-party tournaments (like Dreamhack) to avoid overlapping with other major tournaments.

Below is the current schedule for the first weeks of Chapter 2 - Season 4 competitive play.

Fortnite Tournament Lineup So Far

Season 4 Hype Cup - September 6
September Dreamhack Online Open (NA-West) - September 12 - September 13
Hype Nite - September 13
Paradox’s Platform Solo Cash Cups: Every Monday from September 14 - September 21
Castor’s Contender Trios Cash Cups: Every Tuesday from September 15 - September 22
Chopper’s Champion Trios Cash Cups: Every Tuesday from September 15 - September 22
Wild Wednesdays: Every Wednesday from September 16 - September 23
Hype Nite: Every Sunday from September 20 - September 27
September Dreamhack Online Open (NA-East) - September 17 - September 18
September Dreamhack Online Open (Europe) - September 19 - September 20
FNCS Warmup: September 25 - September 27

Wild Wednesdays will be prized LTM tournaments, changing up each week! We’re also planning on slotting more pop-up tournaments and third party events not listed here that will complement these offerings.

FNCS: CHAPTER 2 - SEASON 4

The Fortnite Champion Series returns, is your Trio ready? We continue to iterate on the format, drawing on some of the learnings that came from last season’s experimental format. This season, the final round of each Weekly Qualifier will feature the same 33-team group playing over two days, and for the Grand Finals we’re introducing a new Wildcard Match for determining the last qualifying team from the Group Stage!

We’ll be keeping an eye on in-game performance and the impact of various new gameplay elements. We’ll make sure to confirm which will be present in Competitive playlists before the FNCS season begins. Our enhanced viewer site at watch.fortnite.com also continues to evolve as we continue with our official broadcast, supported by Twitch Drops for viewers on that platform.

FNCS Dates

FNCS Week 1: October 9 - October 11
FNCS Week 2: October 16 - October 18
FNCS Week 3: October 23 - October 25
FNCS Finals: October 29 - November 1

We’ll have more to share for FNCS, including complete details and official rules, at a later date.

OFFICIAL RULES CLARIFICATIONS

As we mentioned last week in our competitive integrity update, we’d like to highlight a few rules and offer clarity for Chapter 2 - Season 4 along with a few updates.

COLLUSION

WHAT IS COLLUSION (NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST):

Consistently working together with the same opponent. This includes fighting together or working together against a 3rd player or 3rd team who encroaches on a shared location or shared drop spot.
With this clarification now in place, we’re now taking a greater stand to action if conclusive evidence is found linking opponents to common goals together.
Staged engagements among colluding teams to deceive event admins. As an example: Manipulating storm surge factors intentionally by trading damage with no intent of elimination.
Pickaxe swinging (or other actions) used as a form of signaling to opponents.
Sharing loot or leaving items with or for opponents for their gain.
Intentionally feeding eliminations to another team.

WHAT ISN’T COLLUSION (NOT AN EXHAUSTIVE LIST):

Consistently dropping in the same location each match.
Announcing a drop spot on social media.
If you believe you're good enough to stake your claim publicly on a spot, be prepared to defend it. Players contesting your claim is part of the game, and should be encouraged.
Choosing to not engage in combat at certain times.
Coaching using the in-game replay tools.
Outright competitive bans will be made when the collusion evidence is conclusive, without any official warnings. Warnings will be issued in situations when players are very close to the line of collusion, and we will administer these in cases that could swing either way. Continued actions after official warnings could then result in competitive bans.

Reminder: Players actioned for 30 days or longer during last season will not be eligible for this season’s FNCS. We are continuing this policy for Season 4; any players removed from competitions for 30 days or longer will be ineligible to participate in next season's pinnacle event.

SMURFING OR ILLEGAL RESTARTS

Like last season, smurfing is still disallowed in most prized competitions. We’re splitting the current definition of smurfing into two parts:

Traditional Smurfing: Playing on an alternate account that has a lower Arena Rank than your main account in order to illegally participate in tournaments or events that are only eligible for lower Arena Ranks. This type of smurfing will not be allowed in any official tournaments that are only open to those in lower Arena ranks.
Illegal Restarts: Playing on an alternate account AND a main account in the same tournament window. This type of smurfing will not be allowed in any official tournaments, unless otherwise indicated.

3RD PARTY SOFTWARE

3rd party aim assist software is never allowed. Players detected using this will be removed from Fortnite competitions and issued competitive bans.

CLOUT FARMING

This season, we will now be taking action against anyone who falsely promotes themselves as a banned or cheating player. This false information gets in the way of real investigations that action true bad actors. It also goes against the spirit of the game and Fortnite competition, which has no place within the competitive Fortnite community.

TECHNICAL ISSUES

This season, we’re also modifying an older rule involving Technical Issues. Due to the nature and scale of online competition, we previously had a hard rule of not restarting or making matches null due to server crashes. While this will still be the case for the majority of online competitions, we are improving this rule to include any matches or tournaments that specifically use scheduled matchmaking (like FNCS Finals, or any sessions with only 100 players or less). This will give the Epic Competitive team more flexibility to make the best decision based on the factors at hand for any unfortunate scenarios (like a complete server crash) in single lobby events.

LET’S GO!

Remember, prized tournaments will start two weeks after the season launches to let the meta settle. Until then, hop in Arena to explore the new changes and climb the Hype Leaderboard. Stay tuned for updates on @FNCompetitive on Twitter, and good luck this Season!