Chapter 3 Season 1 FNCS: schedule, streams, drops & more

We’re onto 2022, which means the first FNCS competition of the new chapter.

Players at all levels are excited to see how these new weapons and items will affect the professional meta.

What’s more, the 2022 FNCS will feature a Duos format – a departure from the trios standard of 2021.

Let’s get into everything you need to know about the upcoming tournament.

Epic Games

Schedule

The Chapter 3 Season 1 FNCS will begin on February 17 with the qualifiers. These will run until February 20.

The semi-finals will take place on the weekend of February 25 and the finals will conclude the following weekend – March 5-6.

Epic Games

Format

Since this is a duos competition, more teams will qualify for the semi-finals. Interestingly, Epic have made placements and consistency more of an emphasis this season.

You’ll need to either win a game or use your consistency points to advance to the finals.

The same elimination/placement points will be in effect in the finals, with one “match point” change.

Now, a team can automatically win the FNCS finals by winning 3 games or scoring 500 points in the finals – an interesting wrinkle that could see the first FNCS go shorter than 6 games.

You can take a look at the full list of rules here.

Epic Games

Prize Pool

The prize pool is about the same as it was last season: a total of $3,008,500 split between the seven regions.

As usual, EU and NAE boast the most money, while OCE will only see $92,000 of the $3 million total.

Here’s a breakdown of each region’s prize pool:

• EU: $1,362,500
• NAE: $637,500
• BR: $418,000
• NAW: $239,500
• Asia: $145,000
• ME: $114,000
• OCE: $92,000

Broadcast & drops

The qualifiers don’t usually have an official stream, but the semi-finals and finals will be broadcast on the Fortnite Twitch and YouTube pages.

Twitch viewers who link their Twitch and Epic accounts will be able to claim free drops throughout the competition – just by watching the stream.

We don’t have any images of the specific drops we’ll get, but they’re usually a back bling variant, spray, and emoticon. 

Judging by the color scheme of the announcement image, these will probably be white, blue, and gold.