Fortnite Milk Cup 2025 players discuss LAN vs. Ranked, Preparation and more [Exclusive]

The Fortnite Milk Cup has made a huge leap, going from LA Comicon, to the heart of Twitchcon 2025, with much of the attention being poured onto these talented young gamers. With a booth right in the middle of the show floor, to being hosted by the official competitive Fortnite channels, it’s clear that this tournament is being taken seriously. Ahead of the event, we had a chance to chat with several of the girls competing as a part of a pre-game panel.

Only the best of the best are taking part in the Milk Cup, and in addition to some of the players, we spoke to some of the women that are making it all happen: Jen Grubb of Gonna Need Milk, ThePeachCobbler, who broke the ground to get these kinds of tournaments going, and the mind behind the production, legendary Counter-Strike player/CEO of Radiant, Heather “sapphiRe” Garozzo. Taking part were:

• Daya+Yaz
• Nina+Vader
• Moxie+Regs
• Kanary+Fraanticc

---

Fortnite MIlk Cup 2025’s players open up about the tournament, the current Item Pool and more

I joined a number of other journalists ahead of the Fortnite Milk Cup 2025, to speak with several of the girls that would be taking part in the tournament. While I had questions primed for all the duos that were there, time is finite, and sometimes, questions get asked by other journalists first! My first question was to the duo of Daya+Yaz:

It's clear to me that these competitors are having a ball, making memories while also trying to come out on top (Image via Gonna Need Milk)

“Daya, in the last Milk Cup, you came in first, and Yaz came in third, which is incredibly impressive. However, this year’s Milk Cup qualifiers were a bit shaky, coming in at 6th in the third online series. How have you prepared for the LAN, and what do you think you’re doing different to push back to the top?”

It’s important not to rest on your laurels, especially in esports. Daya and Yaz both looked at their placements as an important way to learn and grow. While you can learn from victory, you can learn a lot more by not being at the top:

Daya: I think it was good, in a sense, for us to get sixth. Because it means we're doing something wrong if we're not at the top. (0:13) So I guess it helped us learn what we needed to learn and prepare for ahead of this time.

Yaz: I mean, getting that placement is just something you can learn off of. It just helped me want to try more.

It’s difficult to prepare for this kind of event, though. The Milk Cup will no doubt feature the best women in the Fortnite scene, and they all want to do their best. These girls were all very clearly friends though, so it becomes a mix of wanting everyone to do well, while not giving away what you can do to overcome your friends as competitors.

“How do you as a team prepare for a tournament like the Milk Cup? Do you scrim alongside other esports team members, watch other content creators footage to look for weaknesses, or perhaps something else?”

It makes sense to focus on just playing with your duo, but it’s also great to hear that everyone’s taking the tournament so seriously. You can’t take the top spot without practice, learning more, and figuring out what your potential rivals will be doing in-game. I heard from Fraanticc and Nina about their preparation.

Fraanticc: We all posted Milk Cup scrims, and we all got girls together to practice and scrim. We just play games so we can practice towards the Milk Cup. So I think that helps us a little bit towards the tournament.

Nina: Yeah, definitely a lot of scrims. We don't really practice with each other, we all pretty much stay with our duo, because obviously we just want to practice the most with our duo. It's usually just the same thing, we scrim almost every day, but at least for the last few weeks, we've been scrimming almost every day, if not multiple times a week, just trying to learn new strats, practice with our duo, see what the other duos are doing, things like that.

Pictured: Vader, Nina, Kanary and Fraanticc (Image via Gonna Need Milk)

It’s pretty much impossible to prepare for everyone in an event like this, and there’s no telling where duos are going to drop. But I was very curious about the mindset about what goes into overall strategy for a huge LAN like the Fortnite Milk Cup.

“How do you prioritize which duos to take down in an event like this? Are there specific duos you look out for, or is it just whoever shows up gets blasted?”

If nothing else, I respect the level of confidence and knowledge of the duo’s strengths and weaknesses that these duos bring to the table. A few of the competitors spoke up about their strategy, but it’s clear they aren’t scared to fight it out.

Fraanticc: I mean, at least for my team, I think pretty much whoever shows up in the region is just getting blasted. Me and Kanary, we're a very aggressive team. We fight a lot, I think. Obviously, I have enough confidence to say that I think we're the two best fighters in the lobby. So, I think we have a lot of confidence with fighting any other teams who don’t back down. So, if you want to come and get it, come get it.

Vader: We’re kind of like a little different, we're aggressive when we need to be. We're not overly aggressive, it's more towards consistency. But if we need something, like if our loot isn't as good and we don't get the Fizz or something, we know that we have the confidence to push a team and to get those eliminations for basically the steps that we need for the game. So, we lean more toward consistency, but aggressive when we need to be.

Daya: For me, I think it's not always the best idea to fight anyone you see, just because you don't know how they're going to play.

While my final question for the duos didn’t get recorded, the topic was the overall Item Meta of Fortnite Chapter 6. I was curious to hear what they thought of the current loot pool, and if it was in need of something. However, I was pretty surprised to hear that unanimously, the Loot Pool is not only great, but possibly the best it’s been in the game thus far. To the girls, things are balanced right now, but love was shown to the Crash Pad as one of the best items right now.

---

Jen Grubb, ThePeachCobbler and Heather “sapphiRe” Garozzo discuss the Milk Cup

After a bit of lunch, we had a chance to also speak to the people that make this all come together: Jen Grubb of Gonna Need Milk, ThePeachCobbler, and Heather “sapphiRe” Garozzo, CEO of Raidiant. My first question concerned the actual event itself. Events like the Milk Cup are important to help serve an underserved portion of gamers: women.

“One of the reasons I love the Milk Cup is that it definitely helps serve an underserved portion of esports players, which is of course, women. Has the Milk Cup team received any messages or feedback from women in esports (fans or otherwise) about what the tournament means to them as gamers?”

Jen Grubb: Yeah, we have seen a lot of feedback with the personal messages and just, you know, competitors or fans watching and commenting on social media. But I know Sapphire, you are more in direct contact with the competitors, so I think you probably have more insights than that.

SapphiRe: It's even as simple as life experiences, like watching these women get on a flight for the first time, traveling across the country on their own. You know, they get to do adulthood now with us. And I was in that position, too.

My favorite part of this is we've got these veterans, the ones that have done it for years and have a ton of experience. And they're all helping the amateur players, like, OK, you've got to sign up your airline miles, you know, and this is how you get a connecting flight. And all the younger girls that haven't done this before, they're looking up to them and they're feeling like they have mentors.

And so what's really nice is the tournament itself provides mentorship. I never had that growing up as a player. There were no other women that I could talk to, ask for help.

How do I find my connecting flight? A lot of women don't want to feel stupid and ask those questions. And so we provide this almost safe space where you can connect with these other players. And obviously that's more like life things, but we have so many fans, too, of the Milk Cup that are just like, wait, women have their own circuit? They have their own tournament? I didn't realize that I belonged.

I didn't know that there were other women pros. Like, that's so cool. And so even fun stories like, you know, Kanara was here last year. I think she was 14 when she competed, and now she's 15. Like, the change in this person, the confidence that she's, like, grown. Like, wait, maybe I'm a pro. Maybe I'm going to do this thing. I'm going to make a run. So I don't know. It's just really fun following their individual storylines. And they're just making memories for themselves and all the women that are at home watching and wanting to be in this position.

Jen Grubb: Yeah, and also with the mentorship and, you know, the guidance from the more experienced competitors. What I love seeing when, you know, I watch some of the interactions on X or whatever with these women. And, I mean, being a woman in esports or in any traditionally, you know, male-dominated field is, it can be really scary and intimidating. And a lot of these players will get, you know, some negative comments thrown their way.

And seeing the rest of the community that's been built with The Milk Cup go and, you know, respond to any, like, any backlash or negative comments that a player might be getting. And just defend them or help them deal with, you know, the pressure and the stresses and the harassment that might come with being a woman in esports. It's just that feeling of community and mentorship and just, you know, women supporting women and rallying together. It's been really wonderful to see.

ThePeachCobbler: Yeah, The Milk Cup has done an incredible job, like, with all areas. Like, even down to girls. Like, if you want to do your makeup or you're nervous about being on stage, like, we're here to watch a YouTube video of you and help you do it. Like, Kanary's mom, like, she was so young and her mom came with her. And her mom didn't know how to navigate the space.

But, like, because this was a safe space, like, we helped her mother know how to get into the gaming industry with her daughter. And even, like, prior to that, these women are being signed to organizations that would never have looked at them before if it wasn't for The Milk Cup and the prize pool size. So, I just think that it's done an incredible thing for women all around.

Creating confidence with the miles and just even in friendships, you know, it'll take the rest of your life. Or just the memories, yeah.

Edited by Jason Parker