The AO Summer Smash featuring Fortnite is set to return in 2023 with an online competition with US $100,000 up for grabs in prize money and charitable donations.

The competitive gaming event will return to the year’s first Grand Slam with Oceania’s best Fortnite players set to battle it out for US $50,000 over the final weekend of the AO from 28-29 January.

The weekend will also feature a unique first Summer Smash Creator series, teaming up with Lachlan, Loserfruit, and LazarBeam to deliver a Fortnite Icon Series tournament across three matches, with US $50,000 in charitable donations on the line for the winning creator’s team. The creator event will be held prior to the competitive Solo tournament on Sunday morning.

The competitive event invites players from Oceania to participate in a four-hour Battle Royale online qualifier running on Saturday 28 January from 1pm AEDT, with the 80 best-performing players progressing to the Solos Final, alongside 10 wildcard competitors.

The final will be held from 1pm AEDT, Sunday 29 January. Players wishing to register for the competitive solos qualifying are required to fill in the form HERE.

Australian competitive Fortnite player and PWR representative Looter said he was looking forward to the event,

“I’m looking forward to competing in this years’ AO Summer Smash and improving on my second place result at the 2021 AO Summer Smash LAN.”

“The AO Tournament only happens once a year, and it’s a tournament with a huge prize pool that every OCE competitor looks forward to,” Looter continued.

Both competitive and creator events will be live-streamed via the Australian Open Twitch and YouTube channels from 11am AEDT Sunday 29 January.

“We’ve had an incredible collaboration with Fortnite over the past five years, enabling us to build an authentic connection with the next generation of sports fans, and people of varied interests, whether it be in person at the event, or digitally through our streams and platforms,” Tennis Australia Head of Innovation Machar Reid said.

Players registered for the solos qualifying will receive further information and updates via the Australian Open Discord and Twitter page @AusOpenGaming.

Developed by Epic Games, the entertainment platform Fortnite has more than 400 million registered accounts worldwide. In Fortnite, players can create their own experiences or squad up in the iconic Battle Royale and action-packed Zero Build. Australia is a key country for Fortnite and is home to a number of the top ranked players and creators.