Fortnite's Summer Skirmish reached its fifth week this weekend, and the series of competition corrected many of the past weeks' issues. Week 5 was centered around combat under the label of "Kingpin," where eliminations were worth one point apiece, and consistency played a pivotal role in determining the week's victors.
Out were the rule confusions, long waiting times, defensive strategies and arduous matches, and in were duos, gun fights and more team communication for the stream. This format could be the esports answer for the rough start of Summer Skirmish because it truly highlighted many of the key aspects of what made Fortnite so exciting to play: run-and-gun skill coupled with constant communication.
This week's competition was explosive and provided the perfect platform for the most skilled players to showcase their individual skill and creative minds for strategy. The biggest takeaway from the week's games was its closeness in pace to many popular shooters such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's success.
Fortnite should not be a crawl that only rewards players with high ground instincts, but a game that incentives the highlights and strategy of the game.
Day 1 was all Team Liquid Jake "Poach" Brumleve and unsigned star Noah "NotVivid" Noah. NotVivid, especially, cemented his name among Fortnite's best players in the Summer Skirmish with his third tournament victory and could arguably be the best player on the circuit.
Poach and NotVivid's teamwork and familiarity were clear. The pair worked together throughout the week to finesse their game plan and sharpen their strategies, and it paid off. It was a duo that made sense on paper after its success in Week 4 incredible success: NotVivid's won the week, and Poach finished second. That made this grouping the easy favorite for their heat.
For the rest of the field, it was a battle for second as Poach and NotVivid spaced themselves far and away from contention. The success of these two could lead to a trend of many of the top placers of Summer Skirmish pairing up to build on each other's success.
Day 2 was and Team Atlantis' Dmitri "Mitr0" Van de Vrie's day along with partner K1nzell. Communication was key for the pair as it was close throughout the day for the tournament lead. K1nzell and Mitr0 needed every single kill and Victory Royale to edge out the second-place team.
The differences between winning a Summer Skirmish were microscopic this week. It could be as simple as staying calm in communication like Poach in top-10 situations or as difficult as aggressing into little vision with small cover such as K1nzell and Mitr0's Match 4 win. The key is to find a landing spot with 100 percent familiarity and knowledge and to fight constantly for the high ground.
If eliminations continue to be the key for future weeks, the risk-reward strategy of landing in less populous starting spots to stack up gear and more aggressive places like Tomato Town will be interesting to watch.