16-Year-Old Wins First Ever Fortnite World Cup and $3M

The first ever Fortnite World Cup has ended with $30 million of prizes awarded and one teenager from Pennsylvania walking away $3 million richer.

Johannes Eisele | Getty Images

If you think playing video games doesn't pay, go talk to 16-year-old Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf. As Polygon reports, yesterday Bugha managed to win the Solos competition at the first Fortnite World Cup and walked away with $3 million in prize money. He managed to score 59 points over six rounds, comfortably beating second place player Harrison "Psalm" Chang who scored just 33 points.

After securing 59 points, @bugha is your first ever #FortniteWorldCup Solo Champion! pic.twitter.com/O5WAcVvjRA

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) July 28, 2019

The world cup was held at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York and consisted of three tournaments called Solos, Duos, and Pro-Am. According to Esportspedia, the World Cup was Bugha's first big tournament and he was only able to take part because Fortnite's creator Epic Games decided to lower the age requirement down from 16 to 13.

Following the end of the world cup, an announcement was made by Epic Games stating that it's starting a Fortnite Championship Series with "millions of dollars at stake." It will allow players to compete across seasons and for everyone else to follow their favorite players as they progress either up or down the leaderboard.

I'm pretty sure the world cup is here to stay, too, and Bugha will be defending his title next time around.