“If you want it, come get it”: Milk Cup 2025 players talk strategy and confidence ahead of tournament

The second annual Milk Cup all-women’s Fortnite tournament will take over TwitchCon later today, showcasing young female talent who are hoping to make it to the Fortnite Championship Series.

With $300,000 (~£223,000) on the line, this is the largest all-women esports prize pool in North America. While intimidating, the competitors are feeling confident and excited about the opportunity.

Ahead of the event on October 18th, Esports Insider was able to speak to the Duos ahead of the action.

This partnership between Gonna Need Milk and Twitch is a rare opportunity for young women in esports to participate in a high-stakes, professionally produced LAN with a built-in fanbase of convention goers that watch their streams on Twitch.

“It feels surreal to be back this year. Last year, it felt like a first step of something new we’re getting into. We’re more prepared this year. It feels amazing,” said Jaya ‘Fraanticc,’ an 18-year-old player who has been dominating this season along with her teammate Kanary, who just turned 16.

On the other hand, dieyuhs and Yqzmin had a tough run-up until the Milk Cup this year, with placements as low as 6th in some of the events leading up to TwitchCon. But that didn’t deter these young girls either.

“It was good in a sense for us to get 6th,” said dieyuhs. “It means we’re doing something wrong, but it helped us learn what we needed to do and how to prepare this time.”

A smaller iteration of the Milk Cup was held at Los Angeles Comic Con in 2024, but the competing women felt that it prepared them for the larger Milk Cup over the weekend. They were able to get a taste of LAN action and start to realise that being a pro esports athlete wasn’t just a one-time occurrence — it’s part of their life, something to feel confident about.

Fortnite is a game that is always switching up its content, gameplay, meta, and loot pool, which already creates quite the challenge for young players. However, the most significant change is switching from Trios to Duos. This split up a lot of Trios from the previous year.

While most of the competitors preferred Duos, they couldn’t help but feel conflicted about losing one of their teammates — and even competing against them.

“Duos is more competitive than Trios,” noted 20-year-old Nina ‘ilyynina’ Fernandez, who is now competing with Duo partner Vader, 18 years old. “It’s harder in a lot of aspects, but it’s easier to build chemistry with one teammate rather than two.”

While the competition is bigger and has a different format, the Milk Cup competitors have felt confident throughout this season. With the help of XSET, the organisation that signed many of the young players competing, there were scrims with 100 female players almost every day to keep them practising with their Duo partner.

“We are prepared,” said 21-year-old Moxie. “This time, we don’t have a coach, but we have a player who helps us. They have the in-game knowledge. He has really helped us. We’re ready to play. I’m excited.”

The competitors are also fans of the Chapter 6 meta, which they feel is balanced and competitive, with very few OP options that take away from the skill required to win. Kanary admitted it’s her favourite loot pool of all time.

“I personally love it right now,” added Vader. “I’m glad they brought back Crash Pads. Knowing it’s going to be Crash Pads, which I’m used to using, adds another level of confidence. I’m happy they brought it back.”

However, the toughest part of preparing for a battle royale tournament is still its unescapable RNG. Kanary explained: “If you can get Crash Pads, FlowBerry Fizz… It’s doable without it, but it’s harder to perform well. You’re always hoping you get one of those items. If not, you gotta make a play to get one.”

The other challenge of competing against the same group of talented players is knowing how each other plays. That means needing to plan for how they believe another Duo will behave, but also trying to shake up their own strategy to avoid being too predictable. Still, every team has their own strengths and playstyle.

“For my team, whoever shows up in our area is getting blasted,” said Fraanticc with a laugh. “We’re a very aggressive team and we fight a lot. I have confidence — we’re the two best fighters in the lobby. We have a lot of confidence in fights and never back down.

“If you want to come get it, come get it.”

Meanwhile, Yqzmin said her team is a bit more defensive: “It’s not always the best idea to fight anyone you see. You don’t know how they’re going to play. They may even stall you out and ruin your whole game if they know they can’t fight — so it’s good to not let anyone control your game.”

While the women all had their own opinions and strategies, the respect between them was real. These players have all become close friends. This can sometimes make competing against one another hard, but it’s all just part of the game.

The Milk Cup 2025 will take place on October 18th at 11:30 PST / 7:30 PM BST. Fans not attending TwitchCon can also watch the event on Twitch here.