The Australian Open tennis finals take place this weekend, and we all know what that means — it’s Fortnite time. Tennis Australia has announced the return of the Australian Open Summer Smash, kicking off this Saturday.
Oceania’s best Fortnite players will take to the server on Saturday, January 28 for a four-hour Battle Royale qualifier, with the top 80 joining the 10 wildcard players in a Solos final, set for Sunday, January 29.
Up for grabs — a share of a massive $50,000 USD prize pool.
“We’ve had an incredible collaboration with Fortnite over the past five years, enabling us to build an authentic connection with the next generation of sports fans, and people of varied interests, whether it be in person at the event, or digitally through our streams and platforms,” said Tennis Australia’s Head of Innovation Machar Reid.
“The AO Tournament only happens once a year, and it’s a tournament with a huge prize pool that every OCE competitor looks forward to,” said Team PWR competitor Looter, who participated in 2021’s iteration of the event.
“I’m looking forward to competing in this years’ AO Summer Smash and improving on my second place result at the 2021 AO Summer Smash LAN.”
Also included in this weekend’s Fortnite action will be the first Oceanic Summer Smash Creator series, with big names PWR Lachlan, Loserfruit and LazarBeam delivering a Fortnite Icon Series tournament.
The Summer Smash Creator series will take place over three matches, and will reward it’s winner with a $50,000 USD prize, which will be donated to charity.
Saturday’s online qualifier begins at 1pm AEDT, with the Summer Smash Creator series proceeding Sunday’s Solos final.
The Australian Open Summer Smash will be broadcast live on AO’s official Twitch and YouTube channels.
Competitors must sign up to participate, with updates on the event provided via the Australian Open Discord and official Twitter account. Sign ups are open here.
