- Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf has received $3 million in a single day after winning the Fortnite World Cup Finals solo division at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens
Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf of Pennsylvania has earned $3 million in a single day after winning the Fortnite World Cup Finals solo division at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens this past weekend. The overall prize pool was $30 million and the second-place winner Harrison “Psalm” Chang (one of the oldest competitors at the World Cup Finals at age 24) won $1.8 million. And 13-year-old Thiago “King” Lapp of Argentina won $900,000.
And Engadget pointed out that the $30 million prize pool of the Fortnite World Cup matched the FIFA Women’s World Cup. And Bugha earned about 50% more than Tiger Woods did for winning the Masters.
“It sounds amazing. Honestly, it’s pretty surreal,” said “Bugha” in an interview with ESPN about the prize. “I got out there and played amazing, and then pretty much brought it home.”
The growth of the eSports market has been driving the growth of grand prizes thus driving the size of the prize pools up. And over the last few years, a number of eSports players have been able to make a living by streaming on YouTube and Twitch.
Turner Tenney (“Tfue”) — one of the biggest streamers on Twitch — competed in the Fortnite World Cup competition and finished in 67th place. While he was not eligible to compete, he still received $50,000 for showing up.
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins also appeared at the event with his wife Jessica Blevins. And fans were leaning over the rails at the stadium to get photos with them and to get autographs. Jessica had to go on social media to get fans to stop since security said it was risky to do that.
Even though the $30 million prize pool is currently the largest in eSports history, there will be an even bigger tournament happening in China as part of the Dota 2 world championship called The International. The prize pool of The International is already nearing $31 million and counting.
eSports has come a long way in the last ten years. About ten years ago, a 19-year-old in South Korea won nearly $100,000 in a Starcraft tournament and that was a huge deal back then.
