US teenager wins $3m as Fortnite's solo champion

Who says your addiction, no, we mean favourite pastime couldn’t bring you a fortune?

Or maybe our premise is wrong, maybe it’s more than a hobby and more of a profession? After all, it was a World Cup competition and like any other world-level competition, participation means a high level of preparation and skills if one is to make any headway.

And for one US teenager, we guess all that yelling to get off the computer has paid off.

The teenager, named Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, won a record-breaking $3m to become world champion of the computer game Fortnite.

 

Congratulations @bugha! pic.twitter.com/nchRlL3wUC

— Fortnite Competitive (@FNCompetitive) July 28, 2019

In case you are wondering what Fortnite is. Here is a short version according to a Wikipedia entry:

“Fortnite is an online video game developed by Epic Games and released in 2017. It is available in three distinct game mode versions that otherwise share the same general gameplay and game engine: Fortnite: Save the World, a cooperative shooter-survival game for up to four players to fight off zombie-like creatures and defend objects with fortifications they can build; Fortnite Battle Royale, a free-to-play battle royale game where up to 100 players fight to be the last person standing; and Fortnite Creative, where players are given complete freedom to create worlds and battle arenas.”

The game is free and very popular among gamers of all ages, reports say and is said to have generated billions of dollars in revenue.

And so was born Fortnite World Cup, with a $30 million prize pool, for an event that took place 26-28 July in New York City at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, which hosts the US Open tennis tournament. And the one who took it the highest single prize of $3 million on Sunday was American teenager, Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf.  It is also the largest prize pool in the history of e-sports, with $30m shared amongst the winners.

However, its record for the biggest prize pool is already set to be broken by another event called The International, taking place in August.

The game developer, Epic, announced the 2019 Fortnite World Cup in June 2018. Plans were to have weekly tournaments starting in late 2018 with the finals in 2019. In March, the developer changed its plans, with qualifiers for the Fortnite World Cup starting in April.

Players earned points in either single or duos weekly tournaments to qualify for the finals. Those with the highest points total were invited to the three-day event held Friday to Sunday. They play for the first prize of $3 million as well as the crown of the best Fortnite player in the world.

 

Forty million players attempted to qualify over 10 weeks of online competition, but only a 100-players, each for the solo and duo events battled it out on giant computer screens.

More than 30 nations were represented with 70 players coming from the US, 14 from France and 11 from the UK.

Each game involves 100 players being dropped onto an island where they have to find weapons, build structures and eliminate each other until one player comes out on top.

Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf came tops in the single event.

And a European team of Emil “Nyhrox” Bergquist Pedersen and David “Aqua” W. won $3 million prize for Saturday’s duo event. The players won two of the six games giving them the most points among the 50 teams competing.

They sure brought on their games!

Congratulations to the winners.