Fortnite Competitive News: Stretched Resolution to be Removed, Playing While in Queue for Arena

Epic has posted a "Competitive Fortnite State of Development" ahead of the Fortnite World Cup Online Open that starts on April 13th! In the post, it looks like they are trying to iron out some of the difficulties players have been experiencing. One of which was long queue times in Arena, which they will be attempting to address by placing you into a match or a Creative Island while you wait. The other big announcement is that they are going to be updating how they handle custom resolutions on PC. This means they are pretty much removing the popular Stretched Resolution.

In addition to those future updates, there will be a Fortnite World Cup Warmup that begins the weekend before the World Cup! That will have a $500,000 prize pool with a wider prize distribution than the previous weeks. Check out all of the official information below!

Heya Fortnite Community,

The Fortnite World Cup Online Open starts on April 13. Let’s gear up by diving into a few feature updates right around the corner and upcoming competitive events on the horizon.

ARENA MODE

The v8.20 update kicked off Arena Mode and players have rapidly been earning Hype while working their way through the divisions towards the Champion League.  We will continue to iterate on Arena by providing new scoring formats, league-specific tournaments, and custom rewards upon reaching new divisions.

One area we’ve heard your pain with longer queue times in higher levels of competitive play, so we are investigating a solution: the ability to play while you wait! We'll place you into a match or Creative Island during those longer queue times to keep you warmed up. While that solution is a little way out, we’ll be regularly updating matchmaking logic for Arena to provide a better experience for players in all divisions.

PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENTS

Improving late game performance is a priority for us. We’ll start by bringing the opt-in FPS display to console and mobile which will help us better monitor live gameplay performance when digging into your reports. The display itself will get a minor improvement to include a rolling min and max value to help catch long frames at fast rates.

We’re also actively investigating uneven framerates, hitching and late-game performance from multiple community reports and competitive match breakdowns. Our goal across upcoming releases is to iterate on common stalls that directly impact gameplay and provide a more consistent endgame experience. The v8.30 update contains improvements to multithreaded rendering performance in heavier scenes for console and desktop as well as a fix for a hitch related to vehicles.

STRETCHED RESOLUTION

In the near future, we will be updating how we handle custom resolutions on PC. When using a custom resolution, vertical FOV will be locked. Horizontal FOV will be unlocked in all modes, but in competitive playlists (e.g. Arena and in-game tournaments) we will be locking the aspect ratio to 16:9.

SERVER REPLAYS

Last weekend, we were able to make server replays from the Luxe Cup available to players for the first time. With these files came the ability to utilize our work-in-progress broadcast spectating tools. The process is currently manual, you’re required to view on PC and download the replay files from the following links:

OCE, ASIA, BRAZIL, NA WEST
OCE, ASIA, BRAZIL, NA WEST (alt link)
EUROPE
EUROPE (alt link)
NA EAST
NA EAST (alt link)

We’re working to surface these replays in-client starting with v8.30. In the meantime, we’ll be continuing to populate the above folders with the latest competitive cup replays each weekend. Follow the guide below to get started:

1. Click on the desired replay file from within one of the sheets above.
2. This will open a browser tab, which will start an automatic download of the replay file.
3. Navigate in-game to the “Career” tab then “Replays”.
4. Click on “Open Replay Folder” button at the bottom right to bring up File Explorer and the replay folder.
5. Move the downloaded replay file from Step 2 into the folder opened in Step 4.
6. The replay should now be able to be played in-game, by going to “Career” then “Replays” on the main menu within Fortnite Battle Royale.

Our broadcast tools are a work-in-progress, so please give us your feedback as we work to polish and add features over the next few iterations. In the future, we aim to have our broadcast tools available for both on-demand replays and streaming games in client on all platforms. We’ll be watching for all of the great replay edits uploaded by you across social channels and will share our favorites with the rest of the Fortnite community!

FORTNITE WORLD CUP WARMUP

The Fortnite World Cup Online Open tournaments begin on April 13, but with one last weekend to go we’ll be holding the Fortnite World Cup Warmup. This is our last online practice tournament and will feature a $500,000 prize pool with a much broader prize distribution than previous weeks.

The Fortnite World Cup Warmup Semi-Finals will be held on Saturday, 4/6. Any eligible Duo who has both players reach Division 6 in Contender’s League in Arena Mode will be able to hop in during the three hour event window. The top 1,500 Duos in each region will advance to the Finals on Sunday, 4/7.

Full rules for the Fortnite World Cup Warmup will be available later this week here: https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/competitive/news

2FA

As a reminder, all players who compete in the Final Round of the Fortnite World Cup Warmup and other cash prize tournaments will be required to enable 2FA and link their account to an Epic ID. You can do so by following our guide here.

In the future, we may require 2FA to participate in earlier rounds, so it’s best to double-check in advance. Our support team is also equipped to assist those that need help with their current 2FA access by submitting a ticket here.

We hope to see you on the Fortnite world stage!

- The Fortnite Competitive Team

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