16-Year-Old Kyle Giersdorf Wins $3m from Fortnite World Cup

• Kyle Giersdorf has won $3 million in the Fortnite World Cup
• Giersdorf defeats opponents with 26 points ahead of the second-best
• Epic drops news about an upcoming Fortnite Championship Series with Season 10

Kyle Giersdorf has become the world’s first Fortnite champion in the solo category. He competed against 100 people, defeating them with a significant 26-point advantage.

Kyle Giersdorf Won the Fortnite World Cup in Solo

The 2019 Fortnite World Cup has ended with 16-year-old Kyle Giersdorf walking away from the event as the world’s best player, along with a $3 million prize pool for his first placing in the tournament.

Native of Pennsylvania, Giersdorf was among the 100 elite world players to enter the competition for a shared prize pool of $30 million, secured by Epic Games, Fortnite creators and authors of the world’s defining new competitive video gaming genre, the battle royale.

Congratulations @bugha! pic.twitter.com/nchRlL3wUC

— Fortnite Competitive (@FNCompetitive) July 28, 2019

Giersdorf outgunned his opponents, wrecking havoc across the battlefield, finishing with a 26-point lead ahead of the second best player in the World Cup event. Speaking immediately after he has won, Giersdorf who goes by the online moniker of “Bugha” had this to say:

“Words can’t even explain it. I’m just so happy. Everything I’ve done, the grind, it’s all paid off. It’s just insane.”

Meanwhile, the duos tournament was won by Emil “Nyxon” Bergquit Pederseon and David “Aqua” W. who divvied up another $3 million prize pool on Sunday.

Fortnite’s popularity has been completely insane, as Mr. Giersdorf would put it, with the game reinventing itself from a team-based survival shooter to a PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG) inspired battle royale game with a significantly more dynamic gameplay and rather more appealing graphics.

By April, 2018 the game had topped $300 million in revenue with the year’s revenue hitting the whopping $2.4 billion. Tim Sweeney, the CEO & Co-founder at Epic Games dismissed accusations by PUBG that Fortnite’s success was based on the company stealing the concept from the developer.

As Mr. Sweeney put it, there was a lot game developers could learn from each other. It was around that time that PUBG continued to be plagued by a slew of bugs and player complaints regarding drops in performance.

What’s Next for Competitive Fortnite?

Many have been critical of the way Epic Games has handled the game and the competitive community emerging around it. For the most part, critics have said that the developers have been throwing a lot of money in pursuit of popularity and outlasting any rival game, whether that is Apex Legends or PUBG.

Moving forward, Epic Games intend to prove critics wrong, creating a special Fortnite Championship Series which were announced as part of a Twitch presentation. The Championship Series will have all the trappings of regular competition.

This marks the next serious step Epic has undertaken to guarantee the success and continuity of Fortnite as a genuine esports competition rather than a public stunt as some detractors have suggested.