“It’s about the practice, it’s about the camaraderie, it’s about finding other teammates, and then it’s about the resources that we provide, too.”
The Milk Cup's 2025 circuit is shaping up to be its greatest iteration yet! With Fraanticc and Kanary recently winning the second major qualifier, only one more qualifier remains before the LAN championship. The Milk Cup 2025 Finals will kick off this fall at TwitchCon San Diego. Ahead of the tournament, esports.gg sat down with MilkPEP senior marketing manager Jennifer Grubb and Raidiant founder Heather Garozzo for an exclusive interview about everything new for The Milk Cup 2025 and the upcoming TwitchCon event.
The Milk Cup 2025 Finals at TwitchCon San Diego
Earlier this month, the circuit's team announced that The Milk Cup 2025 LAN Finals will take place at TwitchCon San Diego. All of the games will kick off on Oct. 18 and feature the top 100 women Fortnite players. In duos, they will compete for the lion's share of the prize pool at the San Diego Convention Center.
"It has just such a massive footprint of gamers," Garozzo told esports.gg. "People love esports, they love meeting other creators, and it's just the perfect opportunity to put the best women Fortnite players in the world in front of all these fans that are already going to be there. They're watching them online, and now they're going to head to this venue."
In terms of on-site activations, Grubb noted that last year's whack-a-mole game and photo booth were very successful. The circuit's mascot, a bottle of chocolate milk, was a fan-favorite as well. Grubb said that the mascot will likely make another appearance.
There will be broadcast upgrades as well. For example, it will feature more fan reactions, player moments, and content between matches. Even small details like providing hand warmers will be handled to improve every competitor's experience.
"Last year, for over 60% of our players, it was their first time competing in a tournament," Grubb added. "So bringing in that new generation of competitive women esports players — and then also having so many of them return because they had a positive experience last year — it's really heartwarming to see."
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The Milk Cup Academy, MilkPEP, and Raidiant's impact on women in esports
According to Grubb, each broadcast since last year's first qualifier has outperformed the previous one, indicating growing interest. The fact that The Milk Cup is an S-tier Fortnite tournament further indicates its positive impact on women in esports, too.
"Being S-tier on Liquipedia is absolutely wild with our first LAN last year, especially being an all-women's tournament," Grubb said. "Considering we're not an endemic gaming company — we are promoting the product of dairy milk — being able to make this kind of impact in the space and for our participants goes beyond anything I could hope. It also shows all the gamers that [MilkPep] wants to support your gaming experience [and] your performance at the professional level. Milk can also help support your focus with drinking the nutrients of the product itself."
Garozzo agreed, adding insights from the Raidiant side of things. She told esports.gg that although about half of all gamers are women, many of them face intimidation and barriers to esports. Raidiant wants to keep lowering these barriers by creating safer and more welcoming spaces. The Milk Cup Academy, in particular, launched earlier this year to provide all-women scrims to help with this. It has a $2,000 prize pool, but it's not really about the prizing at all.
"It's about the practice, it's about the camaraderie, it's about finding other teammates, and then it's about the resources that we provide, too," Garozzo said, adding that recent Q&A sessions featured top players and creators like Sommerset and ThePeachCobbler. Other upcoming content will include educational videos from more top players, both women and men, within the Fortnite scene.
How The Milk Cup builds an inclusive Fortnite ecosystem
Speaking of which, Garozzo talked about the circuit's ripple effect at length. The Milk Cup put the spotlight on rising stars like Kanary while former players now work as event staff. Some Raidiant community administrators have even become competitors themselves. This kind of growth shows how inclusive tournaments can reshape an entire scene. Some of the top male players have taken notice, too, showing their support by cheering on and celebrating women in esports.
"They're like, 'That's awesome. It really nice to see, and it's not that we necessarily need the validation, but coming from myself as a pro player and being a fan of the biggest teams in the world, having the best teams in the world celebrate me feels really, really good, and it feels like I'm on the right track, too,'" Garozzo said, recalling a few anecdotes from women competitors. "So, having those guys really be true allies and excited about the women and understand what The Milk Cup program is and wanting to watch is really great. It's really nice to see that we're opening more eyes this year. It's not just other women that are fans, but everyone is a fan of The Milk Cup."
As for parting words, Garozzo revealed that Khanada from Dignitas is fully behind the overall initiative. Khanada wants to help because he simply wants people to get better at Fortnite. Meanwhile, the broadcast talent and analyst desk will feature the best talent from all of competitive Fortnite.
The stage itself, Grubb added, will also be quite impressive and elevated compared to last year.
That's all for now. Stick around on esports.gg for more Fortnite news, interviews, and updates!
