Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf is “Fortnite” world champion

16-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf wins 3 million dollars prize money at the first “Fortnite” World Championship.

Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, a 16-year-old American, has won the first “Fortnite” World Championship in the sold-out Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York and in front of an audience of millions online. The reward: 3 million dollars. It is the highest prize money a single e-athlete has ever collected.

At the top from the 1st round – a 13-year-old amazed

“Bugha” played safe and precise. He won the 1st round and never let himself be pushed away from the top again. With 23 eliminations and 59 points, he had an incredible 26 points advantage over the second-placed Harrison “Psalm” Chang (USA).

The solo final was played over 6 rounds. Of the favourites named in advance, only Danny “Dubs” Walsh (USA) and Clément “Skite” Danglot (Fr) were able to win one round each. But that was only enough to finish 15th and 7th respectively.

The only 13-year-old Argentinian Thiago “King” Lapp also caused a sensation with his aggressive high-risk game at the beginning. But then he dropped back to 5th place.

Also Swiss at the start

Switzerland was also represented: Issa “Issa” Rahim qualified for the solo final, Duong “Kinstaar” Huynh from Freiburg played solo and duo, and Karim “Airwaks” Benghalia from Geneva, Pierre “Vato” Mesey from Neuchâtel and Jérémy “4zr” Dang from Vaud played in duo teams. “Kinstaar” could be seen several times in the live broadcast, but only made it to 26th place.

In the duo final, Switzerland was able to achieve a respectable success: “Vato” achieved a good 10th place together with “Skite”, which earned the team 225,000 dollars.

40 million participants

Already the qualification for the final tournament is a great success: 40 million players had tried, only 200 managed. A total of 30 million dollars was paid out in the final tournament. The “Fortnite”-E-Sport-Liga pays out a total of 100 million dollars. A piece of cake for manufacturer and operator Epic – last year Fortnite made a profit of 2.4 billion dollars.