Epic Games has announced the schedule and format for the 2021 Fortnite Champion Series, including a $20 million prize pool. The announcement includes a significant format change that longtime FNCS fans and participants have been asking for.

We've scoured Epic's announcement and organized everything you need to know about FNCS 2021.

In perhaps the biggest change to the Fortnite Champion Series to date, Epic has decided that all FNCS events in 2021 will be in a trio format. That's right. No more duos or full 4-man squads.

Other important changes include: [i.e., teams will not all have to play on the same platform. However, most of the top players will still play on PC.

- One additional round of weekly qualifiers will be added, and once a team makes it to the semi-finals, they will not be allowed to participate in any subsequent qualifiers for that tournament. Obviously, players were unhappy that the qualifying rounds were influenced by teams that had already secured a spot.

- Epic split the semi-finals and finals into separate weekends to avoid player fatigue. As someone who has to cover these things, I appreciate it.

- All prizes were shifted to the finals of each event.

- The top three teams from each region's finals will automatically qualify for the next season's FNCS finals, provided the same team members remain.

- Some uncertain scoring format changes to account for the increased influx of players to the FNCS.

The FNCS 2021 Chapter 5 season opens in early February and runs through mid-March. If your team does not qualify, you can always try again until mid-February.

Qualifier 1: February 4-7 Qualifier 2: February 11-14 Qualifier 3: February 18-21 Bye Week: February 25-28 Semifinals March 5-7 Reboot Rounds March 5-13 Finals March 12-14

Since this is the first of four seasons of FNCS the future dates will definitely be announced at a later date.

Despite this hellish year, Epic Games has managed to accumulate a total of $20 million to be distributed to this season's winners. This is $3 million more than the 2020 FNCS.

Epic also stated that there will be four FNCS seasons in 2021, each with a $3 million prize pool. This $3 million will be divided by region.

EU: $1,350,000NAE: $690,000NAW: $300,000BR: $300,000ASIA: $150,000ME: $120,000OC: $90,000

But wait, there is more prize money: according to Epic, mid and endgame competitions have an additional $8 million available, details of which will be announced later.

FNCS 2021 will likely be available on the usual Twitch and YouTube channels. Nevertheless, Epic is expanding its reach with regard to broadcasts of the tournament.

Epic will add separate broadcasts for French, German, and Spanish speakers in the EU region.

"By expanding the global coverage of the FNCS, we can now focus our broadcasts on the full schedule of semi-finals and finals, as well as the regional final lobbies of the weekly qualifiers," Epic said.

Broadcasting in Oceania will be handled by the Australian Open.

Epic, of course, is always trying to keep things fresh, so expect to see some changes in gameplay as the FNCS 2021 season progresses. So far, a few changes have been announced that anyone who plays regular battle royale can expect.

- addition of lever-action shotguns - Riftfish vaulting - Shockwave grenades made into vaults - Removal of elevators and IO guards - Sand tunnels were one of the buggiest features in Season 5, but Epic seems to be happy with their current state. If that happens, it will be interesting to see how the pro players play against each other. - The number of gold bars a player starts with in competitive mode will be adjusted on an ongoing basis as needed.

Epic will also be hosting console-specific tournaments, Saturday solo events, and one-off trios cash cups and LTM tournaments. So if you are a casual competitive player and are not eager to make competitive play your job, keep an eye out for these tournaments.

Don't forget to check out the other Fortnite guides. They contain tutorials for the major quests in Season 5.