The face of Fortnite, Tyler "Ninja" Blevins, will compete at TwitchCon in a major battle royale competition, but he isn't on the docket for his usual title.
On Friday, both Epic Games and Activision Blizzard laid out plans for the annual streaming conference in San Jose, California, which runs Oct. 26-27. Activision Blizzard announced the Doritos Bowl for Blackout, its new Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 battle royale mode. The competition will feature popular streamers Ninja, Ben "DrLupo" Lupo, Michael "Shroud" Grzesiek and Jack "CouRage" Dunlop, who will captain teams of other players on Oct. 27.
Coincidentally, the game that made Ninja a household name and has been capturing the attention of fans around the world, Fortnite, will conclude its $10 million Fall Skirmish during the same conference.
Blackout was released as a beta this week, and Ninja and other popular streamers usually known for Fortnite have jumped on the new game. Streaming numbers on Twitch crossed over 500,000 in total for Blackout on Friday. The Doritos Bowl is the first competition announced for the AAA title.
"I am very excited to be involved in Doritos Bowl; the event should be really fun, and I am quite interested to see how my team will stack up against the squads that Ninja, DrLupo and CouRage have put together," Shroud said in a statement.
The Fortnite Fall Skirmish kicks off next weekend. Epic has not yet released the format for Week 1, but in a media release promised a variety of game play throughout the Skirmish, including "white-knuckle ATK races, masterful golf outings and mini-games." Epic said more than 500 players earned money during the Summer Skirmish, and it hopes to replicate that distribution this fall.
Also on Friday, TwitchCon announced enhanced security procedures in the wake of the mass shooting at a Madden competition late last month in Jacksonville, Florida. Attendees can expect to be searched at all entry points, and organizers have restricted the sizes of bags people may bring, among other changes.