search person
close

First ever Fortnite World Cup! 🏆

By Luke Wakeham
Published

16-year-old Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf (USA) has become the first Solo player to become Fortnite World Champion!! 🏆

(There's such thing as a Fortnite World Cup, btw!) 

Kyle, from Pennsylvania, fought off 99 other people to walk away with the $3 million grand prize. 💰  

$3 million! 🤑 💸

The Fortnite World Cup was announced back in February 2019 and immediately got attention with its $30 million prize pool. 

Since the start of the qualifiers in April, 40 million people have jumped from the party bus hoping to make it to the World Cup held at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York. 🇺🇸 🚟

100 Solo players and 50 Duos made the cut, alongside eight teams of four for the Creative Finals. 

50 celebrities and 50 pro gamers partnering up – like Ninja and Marshmello – to win $3 million for their chosen charity.

 

The Solo completion was the largest e-sports individual tournament prize pool, a total of $15,287,500 (that's £12,338,400 or €13,731,700) up for grabs - with even the player in last place receiving $50,000! 😲

The Duo competition launched on 27 July with 50 teams battling it out across six rounds.  

In the end, players Emil 'Nyhrox' Bergquist Pedersen (Norway) and David 'aqua' W. (Austria) took home the $3 million prize with 51 points and two Victory Royales, making them the first Duos players to become Fortnite World Champions. 🏆🏆


One very interesting story to come out of the Duo competition was that the second-place team of Dave 'Rojo' Jong (Netherlands) and Jaden 'Wolfiez' Ashman (UK) were competing using standard Xbox One controllers. 🎮

In the very competitive world of e-sports, it is generally accepted that mouse and keyboard are superior. Your aim is more precise when using a mouse instead of an analogue stick. To compensate, players using controllers are given a touch of 'aim-assist', which mildly draws the player's crosshair towards a target.

Rojo and Wolfiez have been celebrated for doing so well and representing a community of gamers who prefer controllers over mouse and keyboard. 🎮


The following day the Solo competition took place. After six rounds, Kyle Giersdorf emerged victorious, winning with 59 points. With 33 points, Harrison 'psalm' Chang (USA) came in second. Bugha took home $3 million in prize money which is also the largest payout for a single player in an e-sports tournament. Image the games you could buy with that! 😍