In yet another example of cyberpunk future becoming cyberpunk present, teen gamer Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf was recently swatted during a livestream just weeks after becoming the first Fortnite World Champion. Swatting is the criminal attack where trolls mislead law enforcement into bursting in on a target while they are streaming.
Fortunately, Giersdorf wasn’t hurt seeing as he was friendly with a local officer. Plus, he’s still got all that Fortnite money. But other victims aren’t so lucky when armed police come to their doors. Swatting has already led to at least one death and 20 years of jail time for the perpetrator. So don’t do it!
The world of esports already has tons of shady money flowing around from suspicious sources. And with Fortnite, you already know that millions of players are constantly pumping in cash, enough money for Epic to woo more and more developers to its PC games store with generous profit-sharing. So it should come as no surprise that there was a substantial amount of dough on the line for the first ever Fortnite World Cup here in New York. And now that it’s over, meet the teen who survived the battle royale and made way more money than all of us.
Your first Fortnite World Cup Champion is 16-year-old Pennsylvania native and first-time tournament entrant Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf. He took home $3 million for winning the Solos championship pretty definitively with 59 points. With $30 million in a pool though, we’re sure runner-up Harrison “Psalm” Chang didn’t go empty-handed with his 33 points.
Here’s the full final score and prize money payout.
The real winner here though is Epic Games for cementing Fortnite even further into the pop culture consciousness. It’s one thing to hear about millions of kids playing a game online and doing some dances. But packing them all into a stadium makes Fortnite feel on par with football and basketball and other sports that definitely aren’t just fads. And like a real sports tournament, there was even some drama as a pair of known Fortnite cheaters were booed during the doubles competition. The crowd then cheered when they were eliminated.
This is just the start. After the World Cup Epic Games revealed the Fortnite Championship Series offering millions more dollars to contenders. So we’ll who’s the next teen to build, shoot, and floss their way to financial independence. For more on video game tournaments get ready for EVO 2019 this weekend by refreshing yourself on its fighting game lineup. And start training for the next Fortnite World Cup by learning how to hire a coach from Gamer Sensei.
