I followed this guide on the Epic Games site, which links to this: https://github.com/EpicGames/UnrealTournament
which led me to this: https://wiki.unrealengine.com/Building_On_Linux
and now I have Unreal Engine... not Unreal Tournament.
Update : this is the DL link : https://s3.amazonaws.com/unrealtournament/ShippedBuilds/%2B%2BUT%2BRelease-Next-CL-3525360/UnrealTournament-Client-XAN-3525360-Linux.zip
using this guide worked for me :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_4sJuR-n6Y
the latest current link to the game is : https://s3.amazonaws.com/unrealtournament/ShippedBuilds/%2B%2BUT%2BRelease-Next-CL-3525360/UnrealTournament-Client-XAN-3525360-Linux.zip
they now have a epic games login that greets you at the start but I don't think it works yet. but you can play offline.
If someone figures out loging in to epic I'll mark that as answer.
EDIT : this no longer works for multiplayer you now have to use the windows version (HEROIC launcher to play multiplayer)