Why Twitch Rivals got everything right with Streamer Bowl 3: Fortnite LANs back?

Top Fortnite pros, content creators and NFL stars gathered in LA on Wednesday night for the Twitch Rivals Streamer Bowl 3 Finals. With $1,000,000 up for grabs in charity prizing, vibes were always going to be high!

Other than DreamHack Winter, which saw very low attendance due to late notice, high prices and a small prize pool, this was the first major in-person Fortnite event since Covid. Barring a quick restart in game one, it went off without a hitch.

Twitch really nailed the production. The hosts kept viewers engaged throughout, and all the little segments between matches were clean and non-distracting. Casting and observation of the gameplay was great, and we didn’t seem to miss out on any key moments.

Additionally, player interviews, which can often be (perhaps fairly) criticized as being awkward and cringey, were kept short and sweet while still providing a crucial element to the broadcast. Credit to the participants themselves, everyone gave good answers and avoided saying anything too controversial.

As for the tournament itself, despite the fun, charity atmosphere and inclusion of NFL athletes, we got to enjoy some proper competitive Fortnite action. It came down to the wire in the last game, as Hispanic talents Jelty and Pgod duked it out for the top spot.

In the end it was Pgod who took the crown, putting an end to Clix and Tarik Cohen’s dominant Streamer Bowl run, alongside teammates PaMstou and Marquise Brown. To put the cherry on the cake, it was also Pgod’s mum’s birthday!

After hilariously being called out by the casters, Nickmercs and co left an uncontested drop spot to land on Aydan at Tilted Towers. On this occasion, the MFAM came up trumps in the battle of the controller kings, even pulling off a huge final game to finish up 5^th overall.

While Streamer Bowl 3 was undeniably a treat for Fortnite fans, it was nice for the players too. With so much of their time being spent online, it wasn’t surprising that they all looked so happy to be together.

Strict safety measures were in place and community qualifier Chimp1k had to compete from his hotel having tested positive for covid. The only other issue was that the PCs provided struggled to run Fortnite and stream simultaneously, meaning people experienced framerates as low as 30fps.

Regardless, the Streamer Bowl was an overwhelming success and proved just how exciting Fortnite LANs can be. The official Twitch Rivals stream peaked at over 200k viewers and community feedback on social media has been nothing but positive.

Fingers crossed this will pave the way for more in-person competition throughout 2022. It may still be too early for large scale open events and big crowds, but there’s truly something special about having all the players together in one space.