Daniel ‘KEEMSTAR’ Keem, creator of the popular Friday Fortnite competitions, has confirmed that Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins and YouTube King Felix ‘PewDiePie’ Kjellberg are teaming up for Week 2 of the online tournament.
Friday Fortnite returned on May 31, seeing NRG Esports’ MrSavage and Benjyfisy take home first place as they overcame Ghost Gaming’s Kamo and Issa in the Grand Finals of the $20,000 tournament.
Ninja, the most followed streamer on Twitch, was playing with his long time duo partner Reverse2k, whom he is still struggling to qualify for World Cup Duos with. The two finished a respectable third place. However, for Week 2 of Friday Fortnite Season 2, on June 7, he will be playing with Swedish YouTuber PewDiePie in one of the most unforeseen moves in the history of the tournaments.
PewDiePie is best known for his YouTube channel which sits at over 96 million subscribers – the most subscribed to individually run account in the world. His Fortnite Battle Royale abilities will remain a mystery to most who follow him, as he has not exactly made the game a staple of his channel, but he’ll be hoping to step up alongside Ninja when June 7 rolls around.
While Pewds’ channel started life with gaming content and quickly grew to be known for some of the most popular ‘lets play’ videos ever made, the Swede has not focused on video games for a long while. He has, however, been known to mock Fortnite Battle Royale above just about any other game on the market today, making the collaboration with Ninja even more bizarre.
The news was confirmed by the host of the even KEEMSTAR, who posted a video of Ninja’s highlights and described the two men as the “biggest names in gaming”. The news was well received by the community, amassing over 35,000 likes at the time of writing.
Week 2 #FridayFortnite @PewDiePie & @Ninja team up! pic.twitter.com/nSVkavvP7R
— KEEM :popcorn: (@KEEMSTAR) June 3, 2019
Popular American YouTuber Jimmy ‘MrBeast’ Donaldson responded in typical fashion, joking that he’d give Keem his bank account if he can play them in the first round next week. After Keem said he already had an “evil plan” for that, Donaldson revised his offer, throwing his YouTube channel in as well.
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It’s understandable that competitors will be so keen to face the king of YouTube – the opportunities for content will be next to endless, especially given his comedic commentaries and statements about the game, and its personalities, in the past.
Temping , but I already have a evil plan for that….
— KEEM :popcorn: (@KEEMSTAR) June 3, 2019
ok deal!
— KEEM :popcorn: (@KEEMSTAR) June 3, 2019
It will be a pleasant surprise to those watching if Ninja and Pewds are able to mount a serious challenge. The tournament is generally dominated by professional duos but some celebrities, such as Tory Lanez, have proven their talent, and even challenged the professional duos.
PewDiePie will be hoping to replicate this outsider success when June 7 hits, and KEEMSTAR will be keen to see if the combined might of two of the internet’s biggest stars will be enough to help his tournament break viewership records.
Ninja, of course, will be streaming on his ever popular Twitch account while PewDiePie, given his recent deal with DLive, will be streaming via that platform starting at 1pm PDT.
More Friday Fortnite information, including a full hub with brackets and schedule, will be posted on Dexerto prior to the June 7 competition.
