English Premier League football club Manchester City have signed new Fornite players and announced contract extensions with existing talent.
Trip and Threats have signed contract extensions.
And Man City have signed American Fortnite pro player Joshua ‘Cold’ Butler, and have also signed Polish pro Fortnite esports player Iwo ‘Setty’ Zając, who said he’s looking forward to big tournament at the end of 2024.
They have joined the Man City Esports line-up for the 2024 competitive season, and also join existing player Skram.
Setty joins from London-headquartered esports organisation Tundra Esports, where he finished second in the FNCS Global Championship 2023 with his duo partner and fellow Polish player, Kami. And Cold has joined from Agent Gaming.NA.
Setty says him and Kami have played some 8,000 matches together with. Kami plays for Gaimin Gladiators, while Setty is of course now with City.
Setty has also racked up over $1m in earnings from tournaments overall.
He said the aspect of ‘friendship and competition’ drew him to Man City. He also said it was a ‘terrible feeling’ placing second this year.
“But [Kami and I are] still the best duo and haven’t split up for the past five years, so we’re coming for it this year,” Setty continued. “We understand each other on another level and push each other every day.
“We already know that there’s going to be a very, very big tournament at the end of the year, which is probably going to be like the World Cup again.”
Setty, City
“So we’re looking to win that [big tournament] and obviously the Gamers8 tournament which is going to be like the World Cup of esports. So hopefully, if it’s going to be builds, we’ll be looking to win that as well.”
This may be in reference to the Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) Global Championship, which takes place in Q4 each year.
Also, it’s worth mentioning the inaugural Fortnite World Cup, which took place in 2019 (with UK players Wolfiez and Mongraal doing well) but hasn’t been held since. The pandemic led to the cancellation of the 2020 event, and there have been some rumblings that the World Cup may return some day.
At the same time, a new, separate Esports World Cup was announced back in October 2023 at the Global Sport Conference, co-hosted by the Saudi Esports Federation and Saudi Arabia Ministry of Sport. It will replace the previous Gamers8 Festival and will host a number of games annually. It could be that Fortnite is included in this again, given Gamers8 featured a $2m Fortnite tournament, but the Esports World Cup is set to take place in the summer, not the end of the year.
Regardless, the newly formed Esports World Cup Foundation has not yet announced the fully confirmed list of games in the Esports World Cup 2024, so it’s possible Fortnite could be featured. A potential League of Legends Esports World Cup has also been reported on and discussed.
What Setty was saying implies the tournament at the end of the year will be separate to the Esports World Cup, and more like Fortnite devs Epic Games’ own previous $30m Fortnite World Cup. But it could just be the Global Championship, as mentioned.
His comments come a few days after Disney invested $1.5bn in Epic Games and said the pair were ‘collaborating on something new’.
Moving back to the player’s move to Man City, he showed off the club’s in-game Fortnite skin to mark his move there.
“I’m really excited to be representing Man City Esports and can’t wait to get started wearing the shirt,” Setty added.
“I have high ambitions for the season and I’m hoping to make the fans proud with what I think I can achieve on the Fortnite stage. After finishing second last year, I want to take back the FNCS Global Championship and help City win our first ever FNCS too.”
The news comes a few months after British talent Tekkz joined Man City as their latest EA FC esports player.
Man City’s other EA FC talent includes Edu Castellano, Kacee, FG and Matias Bonanno.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
