BLAST Secures Multi-Year Deal for Fortnite and Rocket League Esports

Published by

James Fudge

4 months ago

Denmark-based tournament organizer BLAST announced Thursday that it has signed a multi-year deal with Epic Games to facilitate the Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) and the Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS), starting this year.

Financial terms of this extended and expanded partnership with Epic were not disclosed, and while the company describes this deal as multi-year, the exact duration of this partnership was not disclosed at the time of writing.

Under the terms of this deal, BLAST will be in charge of all event production, broadcasts, and marketing and commercial rights for Fortnite Championship Series (FNCS) and Rocket League Championship Series (RLCS) competitive scenes.

The announcement marks an expansion of BLAST’s previous partnership with Epic for Competitive Fortnite announced in March of 2023, which included the $4M USD FNCS Global Championship at the Royal Arena in Copenhagen that took place in October.

Prior to that, BLAST and Epic have worked together on select Fortnite competitive events over the last several years including the FNCS All-Star Showdown and FNCS Grand Royale events in 2021; the FNCS Invitational in Raleigh, North Carolina in November of 2022; and the entire 2022 and 2023 FNCS schedules.

In September of 2023, BLAST announced that it had secured a new round of funding of approximately €12.7M (roughly $13.4M USD at the exchange rate, €1 = $1.05 USD, rounded up). The Export and Investment Fund of Denmark (EIFO) and “a number of internal investors” took part in the round, according to a release.

BLAST is perhaps best known for its Counter-Strike 2-focused competition series, the BLAST Premier, which will kick off its fifth season’s Spring Season at the end of this month and will feature major stops in London, Copenhagen, Katowice, and Cologne. More details on the BLAST Premier 2024 season can be found here.

James Fudge

With a career spanning over two decades in the esports and gaming journalism landscape, James Fudge stands as a seasoned veteran and a pivotal figure in the evolution of esports media. His journey began in 1997 at Game-Wire / Avault, where he curated gaming and community news, laying the groundwork for his expertise in the field. In his more recent roles, James cemented his status as an authority in the esports business sphere as Senior Editor Esports at Sports Business Journal and The Esports Observer between 2018 and 2021.