Epic Games has yet to announce the specific details for the 2019 Fortnite World Cup, but that hasn’t stopped players and organisations alike from jumping into the scene early. Since the start of the year, players who have managed to get themselves noticed through streaming and other online tournaments are making names for themselves as Fortnite continues to smash through Twitch records.
Who’s the best though? With so many players vying for attention in a relatively young game, it’s hard to know who the top players are right now, especially since there won't be any official tournaments until the Fortnite World Cup begins. In the meantime, here's 10 Fortnite pro players you need to pay attention to, in no particular order.
KingRichard, The Slaying Monster
Team Envy are an established name in eSports, with teams across Rocket League, Call of Duty, Overwatch and more. In March they plunged headfirst into competitive Fortnite by picking up KingRichard, one of the most promising Fortnite pro players and streamers. His major break came earlier this year when he partnered with Ninja to beat the duos kills record and since then he’s been a name on everybody’s radar.
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He participates in the community Friday Fortnite tournament every week with Aimbotcalvin, a streamer for TSM who also plays a lot of Overwatch. They haven’t won yet but each week they do considerably well, so expect to see KingRichard’s name become a prominent one in the competitive Fortnite pro player community when the official scene gets underway. In streams, he searches for those high kill solo squad games, and you can see a perfect example of that in the video above.
Ninja, The Fortnite Celebrity
Despite not actually considering himself to be a Fortnite pro player since he’s 'just' a member of Luminosity Gaming’s stream team, it’s impossible to write this list and not include Ninja. He’s the one name that everyone knows whether they follow Fortnite or not because the man has broken countless streaming records and played with a number of celebrities like England footballer, Dele Alli and hotline blinger Drake. He’s the top Twitch streamer in terms of subscribers and his streams almost always have more than 100,000 people watching at any time.
Ninja isn't a Fortnite pro player on paper, but if he wanted to, he could easily become one, and it shows with his impressive performance in Friday Fortnite every week. He won the E3 2018 Fortnite Pro-Am tournament alongside EDM DJ Marshmello and even hosted his very own event dedicated to Fortnite called Ninja Vegas ‘18. His streams are also full of fun and laughs, playing regularly with popular streamers like Dr Lupo, TimTheTatMan and Trevor May, baseball player for the Minnesota Twins. He’s made a huge effort to make all of his streams family friendly too. The video above is one example, when he was playing with pro player Hysteria of Cloud9.
Dakotaz, The Lethal Sniper
Dakotaz is another player who is easily good enough to be a Fortnite pro player but for the time being, is just a streamer for TSM. He’s a reliable player in every aspect of the game, but he excels when it comes to sniping. Every single game, if he gets his hands on a sniper rifle, expect to see him pull off difficult shots from the most unexpected of angles. He’s mastered the art of predicting where a player will move to and how much bullet drop to take into the equation, so if you’re struggling with your sniping, Dakotaz is the best person to learn from.
He’s played in a few Friday Fortnite tournaments too, each time with a different partner so regularly tuning into Dakotaz will introduce you to a number of other top players at the same time.
Daequan, The Close Quarters Killer
Daequan is one of the four Fortnite players under the TSM name, and he’s by far the most charismatic. His corny catch-phrases combined with coy side glances to the camera whenever he dies make him one of the most entertaining Fortnite streamers out there. He constantly gets involved in close quarters fights and will regularly take on squads as a solo player, even when the odds are stacked against him. He plays in most Friday Fortnite tournaments with one of his three teammates: Myth, Hamlinz or CaMiLLs and he plays consistently enough to nearly always progress to the later rounds.
CouRageJD, The Wholesome Hero
At the end of last year, Jack ‘CouRage’ Dunlop quit his role as a Call of Duty caster for MLG in an effort to pursue a full time career in streaming. He jumped on the Fortnite train early and it’s paid off for him in a huge way, as he recently broke 10,000 Twitch subscribers and plays with other popular streamers such as Ninja and Nadeshot on a regular basis. He doesn’t consider himself a Fortnite pro player because he’s a streamer for OpTic Gaming, but CouRage has proved repeatedly that he’s more than capable of hanging with the very best. He placed second at the E3 2018 Fortnite Pro-Am with his partner Kenneth Faried, losing only to Ninja and Marshmello, and he plays in almost every Friday Fortnite event.
Perhaps the most entertaining parts of his stream come when he plays with his “10-year-old army”, a group of three 10-year-old kids he’s recruited through public games. It’s some of the most wholesome content on Twitch, and seeing “Uncle Jack” earn so many victories for the three young prodigies is endearing and entertaining. Especially when he uses his trademark Impulse Grenades.
Mongraal, The Teen Prodigy
When you’re 13, there are few things cooler than being a professional video game player. Luckily for Kyle ‘Mongraal’ Jackson, that’s exactly what he is. Hailing from Sidcup, UK, Mongraal shot to fame in April when he was picked up by Team Secret for their Fortnite roster. The boy wonder has since proven that he’s more than capable of hanging with the big boys too, playing and performing well in multiple Friday Fortnite tournaments, even managing to win one with his partner and Team Secret teammate, Domentos. They knocked out a number of high profile players along the way such as CouRage and Baldy, Dr Disrespect and Kraftyyz, and 72hrs and Hogman.
Mongraal is an outstanding player and it’s even more impressive that he’s reached this skill level at such a young age, demonstrating intricate knowledge of Fortnite's mechanics in every single match. One example of this is the video above, in which he has a build battle to the heavens.
Tfue, The People’s Champion
Even though he himself calls Friday Fortnite the “tournament of RNG”, Turney ‘Tfue’ Tenney has won four out of the nine tournaments held so far. Maybe it’s not quite so random after all? Tfue is without a doubt one of the most well-rounded and highly skilled players in the competitive Fortnite scene right now. If this list were in order, it’d be difficult to place Tfue outside of the top three because he’s demonstrated time and time again that he’s a phenomenal Fortnite pro player and capable of taking on anyone.
Besides his numerous Friday Fortnite wins, alongside FaZe teammate Cloakzy, Tfue also won the first ever NerdOut $20,000 tournament, further cementing himself as one of the absolute best. We wouldn’t recommend him to younger viewers, though, because despite his skill, he’s previously been banned by Epic for account selling and purchasing, not to mention regular criticisms get thrown his way for being too toxic. That said, his ability in-game is impossible to pass by.
Nick Eh 30, The Building Beast
Building is what sets Fortnite apart from being just another lacklustre third person shooter and Nick Eh 30 has mastered the art. He’s probably the number one builder in the game right now and that comes from his ability to get the high ground over players, but also knowing when to back down, when to stop building to the skies and to try and get an advantage over his opponent another way. Watching him edit pieces so swiftly to add the element of surprise is mesmerizing, along with his wacky and elaborate contraptions. He’s one of the Fortnite pro players that radiates joy and feel good moments, especially if he manages to get a kill with something he’s put time and effort into setting up.
On top of all of that, his videos and streams tend to be educational with tips and tricks galore. Have a look at the video above, where he builds an enormous death trap in the final moments of the game and leads his victim into it.
Myth, The Seasoned Expert
Back in January, TSM were one of the first esports organisations to go all in on Fortnite, and Ali ‘Myth’ Kabbani was the very first player they picked up. Captaining the TSM Fortnite squad in the house they all live in together, Myth was a true pioneer in the early days of Fortnite. Back when players would only build to climb mountains, Myth took it a step further and started building in combat, creating 1x1 towers to defend himself and taking charge of the early days in the Fortnite meta.
Since then, his ability to change the game has depleted somewhat as Fortnite’s popularity exploded, but he’s still one of the best Fortnite pro players right now. He has a small tendency to die to fall damage when he’s at a LAN event though, having done it twice now, so try not to pick up that aspect of his game. Check out a 1v1 he had against Tfue above.
Cloakzy, The Serious Grinder
Tfue’s duos partner and the captain of FaZe Clan, Cloakzy is another Fortnite pro player whose overall ability hard to match. When it comes to his streams, he’s not the most charismatic of people, so if you’re looking for an entertainer, Cloakzy isn’t the one, but he more than makes up for it with skill. When he’s not destroying other pros and streamers in tournaments, he’s often found winning squad games on his lonesome. In traditional FaZe fashion, he has a tendency to attempt and often execute some otherworldly trickshots, although we haven’t seen him pull one off in a tournament game yet. This video above shows off just why Cloakzy is one of the top players right now, winning a solo squads game with an impressive 25 kills.
Looking ahead
There are plenty more players we could’ve added to this list like Hamlinz, Jaomock, HighDistortion, Dr Lupo and SypherPK, but everyone here offers something slightly different. They’re all incredibly skilled, but Epic’s take on the battle royale is versatile and these 10 Fortnite pro players all excel in a variety of areas. However, stay vigilant. When the official Fortnite esports scene gets underway, these players will all do fine if they participate, I'm sure, but some of their betters are still out there waiting to prove themselves.
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