After less than a year of operation, Natus Vincere will no longer field its two-person Fortnite team due to profitability concerns, according to team manager Mykhailo "M1ke" Palamar.
Na'Vi started their Fortnite team in January, but now their players, Levi "LnueF" Edelijn and Quenten "Quenten" van der Zijpp, are free to pursue other options. The duo finished 44th in this year's Fortnite World Cup in New York, earning $100,000 of the tournament's $30 million prize pool.
"Unfortunately, despite huge interest in the discipline on behalf of the players, the publisher, Epic Games, does not support the esports clubs, completely ignoring their interests," M1ke said in a statement. "The best example is the Fortnite World Cup that has taken place in July, which had strict restrictions regarding the number of sponsors and the sizes of their logos, while some were banned outright. During the long time we've spent in esports, this is the first time we've encountered this approach.
"Developing the esports scene exclusively based on huge prize pools is a short-run and risky model, so NAVI esports club made a decision to not maintain the Fortnite roster and focus on other titles."
Earlier this year, UCLA Esports eliminated Fortnite from their seasonal lineup, in part blaming "competitive Fortnite game balance."
Epic Games announced Monday that the first season of "Fortnite Chapter Two" will kick off Friday and will offer a $5 million prize pool across all regions and competitions.
-- Field Level Media