England goalkeeper Jordan Pickford had a whole gaming PC rig shipped to his national team’s camp in Doha so that he could playFortnitebetween matches at the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The anecdote underline’s the continued popularity, which the game has been enjoying for a while now, among some of the most elite soccer players in the world. Recently, renowned manager JoseMourinho saidFortnitewas a “nightmare"to deal with.
Epic Games has been making the most of its game’s hit status in the soccer community by continuously partnering with some of the sport’s biggest superstars on avariety ofFortnitesoccer skinsand in-game challenges. And while not all the players who licensed their likeness to the game are avid fans, the list of those that previously admitted to playingFortniteon a regular basis includes Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Antoine Griezmann, Neymar Jr., as well as Pickford’s national team captain Harry Kane.
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As for Pickford himself, a recent interview with the English goalkeeper revealed that he had a “proper bit of kit” shipped with him to Qatar, all so that he could continue playingFortniteduring the World Cup. The massive impact-resistant container briefly shown during the video interview at timestamp 8:04 includes a custom gaming laptop and a large monitor, the 28-year-old said. He went on to clarify that he had “a guy” who built the portable PC in order to help him achieve “the best frames” in the game.
As previously announced by the English FA, the England national team is based out of Tivoli’s Souq Al Wakra Hotel Qatar, which is located in the Middle Eastern country’s capital of Doha. This means that Pickford’s gaming setup traveled over 4,200 miles (6,850 km) so that the Everton keeper could continue playingFortniteduring the World Cup. Since his team just made the quarter-finals, his gaming sessions in Qatar are bound to continue for a while yet.
Fortniteis not the only hit battle royale game that has been extending its sphere of influence into the world of soccer. In the run-up to the ongoing FIFA World Cup,PUBG Mobileteamed up with Lionel Mession a massive, soccer-themed update that introduced time-limited items and cosmetics to the game, in addition to debuting Global Chicken Cup, a varied in-game event captained by the PSG superstar. All content added toPUBG Mobileas part of its Football Carnival update is still available in the game as of today and will presumably remain live at least until December 18, which is the date of this year’s World Cup final.
Even some lesser-known battle royale games started appealing to the soccer fandom in recent years. In one such case from 2020, mobile exclusiveGarena Free Firepartnered with Cristiano Ronaldoby not just adding him as a playable character, but building an entire in-game universe around the legendary forward.
Fortniteis available now on Mobile, PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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