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16-Year-Old Wins A Whopping US$3 Million At Fortnite World Cup

Esports has really exploded in the last couple of years, and the big winning by teenager Kyle Giersdorf at the inaugural Fortnite World Cup, which ran over the weekend, epitomised that.

His undisputed skills earned him the top prize of US$3 million.

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The American, who went under the alias “Bugha”, was top dog at the Solo finals, racking up 59 points, a staggering 26 more than his runner-up “psalm”, who also walked away with an eye-popping US$1.8 million. The third-placer, EpikWhale, scored just a point less, and netted himself US$1.2 million in winnings.

Here’s a list of the top ten players, as well as the prize money of they won. You can find the rest of the standings on the official Fortnite website.

Regardless of where these players stood in the rankings, we see their big winnings as an absolute win.

“Words can’t even explain it. I’m just so happy,” Giersdorf exclaimed in an interview after the competition. “Everything I’ve done, the grind, it’s all paid off. It’s just insane.”

Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf winning top spot at the Solo finals at the Fortnite World Cup.

Giersdorf competed in a pool of over 100 players, all of whom competed for the prize pool of US$30m. This staggering amount of prize money is indicative of how esports is booming these days.

Darren Rovell from The Action Network pointed out that Giersdorf’s US$3m winnings were comparable to the top prize of US$3.85m in the tennis US Open, which will take place in just under five weeks.

This certainly puts things to perspective. Dota 2 wowed the world with an impressive US$25m at the Dota 2 International last year, which clearly shows how far esports has come as a medium.