Fortnite FNCS Chapter 2 Season 3 Arrives: How To Watch, Schedule, Drops

As promised, the Fortnite Champion Series tournament is here, with the first broadcasts scheduled to go live later today. Game fans will be able to stream today's Qualifiers over the weekend, kicking off rounds of gameplay leading up to the competitive Finals later this month. Ahead of the first broadcast comes details on how to watch the games, Twitch Drops, and more.

Epic Games released all of the details for its latest FNCS season in July, explaining that the first Qualifiers rounds would be held on August 1 and 2, followed by another set of Qualifiers on the weekend of August 8 and 9. This leads up to the Finals event that will take place on August 14 through 16.

All of these weekend events will be broadcast live on YouTube, Twitch, and the Watch Fortnite website. Epic is splitting up the players into two tracks, with PC players only competing against PC players in one track while mobile and console players are grouped together in the second track. You'll need to have reached 'Champion League' in the game's Arena mode to have unlocked the event, Epic explains.

Don't worry if you can't watch all of the broadcasts — Epic is, of course, maintaining Leaderboards from all of the Qualifiers rounds, making it simple to keep track of which players place for the Finals. If you're a player, you'll need to have a top-ranked spot on the Series Leaderboard or a previous Series Qualifier in order to get a Finals invitation.

Fans can check out the full FNCS Chapter 2 Season 3 gameplay schedule on Epic's website here. The first Qualifiers round will be broadcast today, August 1, starting at noon EST. What about Twitch Drops? Epic says you'll need to link your Epic and Twitch accounts and then look for the 'Drops enabled!' notice on the Twitch channel you're watching. If you instead see a link to enable Drops, it means your accounts aren't properly linked.