Update – May 2, 2019 (3:30pm ET)
After much speculation, Epic Games confirmed the Fortnite World Cup Finals will not be affected by the start of Season 10 and will indeed take place during Season 9.
“That date is wrong – World Cup Finals will be in Season 9,” Fortnite Battle Royale Season 9 hasn’t kicked off yet, but it appears that it will likely end just one day before the start of the Fortnite World Cup, possibly creating a host of issues for those competing at the tournament.
Seasons are one of the ways that Epic Games attempt to keep their popular battle royale title fresh, using the start of a new season to introduce new items and locations on the map, alongside a theme for the event.
These changes can often have a huge impact on the game and the prevailing meta, and with the start date for Season 9 now seemingly locked in, it’s possible to estimate when it will end, with the answer providing a concerning possibility for those competing in the World Cup Finals.
When does Fortnite Season 9 start?
With Fortnite Season 8 confirmed to have 10 challenge weeks, we can expect that it will come to an end on Thursday, May 9.
Epic Games have already started to add files linked to the final event of Season 8, with popular locations like Tilted Towers and Retail Row seemingly set for complete destruction at the hands of the monstrous volcano which sits in the north-east corner of the map.
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When will Fortnite Season 9 end, and Season 10 start?
With that in mind, we can have a fairly accurate guess at when Season 9 will end, which also gives us some insight into when Fortnite Season 10 will kick off.
Assuming that Season 9 will run for the usual 10 weeks of challenges, it would be scheduled to end on Thursday, July 25, just one day prior to the kick off of the Fortnite World Cup.
Season 10 and the Fortnite World Cup
With Fortnite Season 9 penciled in to finish on July 25, pro players who have qualified for the Fortnite World Cup could find themselves in an extremely difficult situation, especially if Epic Games make lots of changes to the game.
Pros could find that one of their go-to weapons may have been vaulted, their typical landing spot removed or replaced, or a new item introduced to the game becomes so powerful that it becomes part of the prevailing meta, like the Infinity Blade back in Season 7, or The Baller in Season 8.
These massive changes could cost Fortnite Battle Royale players the chance to stake a bigger claim to a portion of the $30 million prize pool that is on the line at the World Cup, so it’s possible that Epic Games may choose to lengthen Season 9 in an attempt to avoid this situation and the ire of those competing at the tournament.