The first Fortnite World Cup just wrapped up and, to no-one’s surprise, was a huge success

The game that has currently transcended popular culture to become a full-blown phenomenon dished out million-dollar prizes for the winners of the game’s various divisions.

I’m always so tempted to start articles about Fortnite with the classic, “Ever heard of Fortnite? It’s pretty big right now” and it takes all of my self-control to restrain myself from using such a cliché opener. Fortunately, I was able to use it this time but I was self-aware which automatically makes it fine. The Fortnite World Cup, the first of it’s kind just concluded last night and turned out to be a smashing success with over 2 million active viewers, the event was first announced back in June of 2018, with qualifying tournaments, attended by over 40 millions players worldwide, were conducted throughout the year and into the start of 2019, but plans were changed in March of this year with the qualifiers only beginning this April and the final being held between the 26-28th of July.

With a collective prize pool of over $30 millions, there was a lot riding on this tournament from the players that travelled from around the world to compete in New York City. Players faced off in various matches with points being awarded for how long players survived as well as bonus points being received for racking up kills. In the Duos Division, European team Emil “Nyhrox” Bergquist Pederson and David “Aqua” W. prevailed in first and each netted $1.5 million for their victory. Winning two of the six games, the squad had earned more than enough points to put them well into first placed and managed to hold that lead until the final shot was fired, beating out the other 50 competing teams.

Winning the Solo Division was 16-year-old Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf, taking home a $3 million prize for placing first. Giersdorf won his first match and placed high enough in the following games that he was able to establish an early point lead which never came close to being rivalled by anyone else competing, meaning that by his sixth and last game he was a shoo-in for first place. With the first of what can only be anticipated as many more annual Fortnite World Cup events, Epic has yet to announce when qualifying tournaments for next year’s World Cup will begin, but I’m betting they’ll probably start up again at the end of 2019.

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Last Updated: July 29, 2019