Fortnite Competitive update: Get cosmetic rewards when you rank up in Arena + new tournament schedule

Epic Games has provided fresh details on what Fortnite Chapter 3 Season 2 will hold for competitive.

There’s no doubt that from a casual perspective, Fortnite is in the best spot it has been for a very long time. Former players and huge streamers are returning, viewership is through the roof, and everyone is having a blast!

However, last week did leave competitive fans a bit concerned that they were being pushed aside, and that we were in for another rough season. Now though, Epic has made a series of fantastic changes to balance the meta, and released a new blog post with some exciting news.

During a hotfix on Wednesday, Titan Tanks were removed from competitive playlists, and both the Stinger SMG and Combat SMG were significantly nerfed. They also fixed an issue with the low meshes setting in Performance Mode that had been affecting many players.

Today they another hotfix to take the Cow Catcher Vehicle Mod out of Arena and tournament playlists too. With these adjustments, we can look forward to a far more enjoyable season and hopefully everyone will feel motivated to play again.

Additionally, in a Fortnite C3:S2 Competitive Update article, Epic Games revealed that this season, players will earn cosmetic rewards for their progress in Arena. The first threshold to reach is Contender League Division 5, you will then unlock bonus rewards each time you go up a division.

This is something that the community has been asking for since Arena first launched, and will potentially pave the way for a more robust rework in the future. We don’t yet know what sort of cosmetic the prize will be, but it may well be one item that gains extra style options as you continue to rank up.

Yet another positive announcement is that this season’s FNCS will “provide more rounds to compete, along with more chances to qualify”. In Chapter 3 Season 1, the condensed FNCS format really killed hype and meant some top pros failed to qualify, so it’s great that this has been addressed.

Elsewhere, Epic confirmed that we can expect more Lightning Cups and Zero Build tournaments to complement the Cash Cup and FNCS schedule. These should provide a fun way to compete that could help attract the interest of casual players over to competitive.

With everything that’s happened in the last couple of days, it looks like we are in for an amazing season of Fortnite competition. Epic truly appears to be stepping up their efforts on Fortnite, and I for one can’t wait to see where this takes us in the coming months!