EStars’ Fortnite tournament sees gamers battle it out at Brighton’s Amex Stadium

The EStars Fortnite tournament is on its way around the UK and Ireland and spent three days in Brighton. A concourse at the Amex was converted into an eSports haven filled with games consoles and decorated with various items from the game world.

Fortnite has become a global phenomenon and is the most played game in the world.

Liam Carroll of EStars said: “There isn’t a bigger game out there at the minute that’s grabbed the attention of every age group across the world. It’s just head and shoulders above everybody else.”

There were cash prizes on offer to the best players across the weekend who also earned a place at the EStars tournament finals in March at Stamford Bridge in London where they will compete for a grand prize of £25,000.

To generate atmosphere at the event there were characters from the game wandering around and instigating dance contests while Dawoud Dawoud was commentating on the action.

Dawoud said: “I’m the guy with all the energy and all the hype and all that shouting, that’s basically me. So I was just walking around seeing if there’s any good action. I’d be jumping behind people with so many kills and towards the very end with everything on the line and I’d just be commentating on their games.”

The world of eSports, which sees professional gamers competing for big money infront of big live crowds and in front of even bigger online audiences, has never been bigger.

Dawoud said: “It’s still growing and still has a lot of work to do but it’s breaking ground everywhere. League of Legends was introduced into the Asian Games before so that’s something really good for eSports in general. There’s a lot of eSports jobs, there are scholarships going out in universities and colleges so it’s getting there. I’m really excited for it.”

Liam added: “I think we could be looking at an Olympic sport. Something maybe in the next 10 or 15 years that it could be a sport that we will be watching on our screens. Watching people playing games on our screen sounds crazy but it is something that we do think is going to happen in the next 10-15 years.”