Fortnite World Cup: Young UK players receive big payout, British Esports speaks on national TV

The Fortnite World Cup has concluded in New York and some of the world’s best players have been crowned, including players from the UK finishing in the top ten and receiving large cash prizes. We look back on how well the UK did and the exposure the competition generated.

 

What is it?

The Fortnite World Cup is a huge esports tournament for the massively popular last-player-standing shooter game Fortnite. It features an overall prize pool of $30m, making it the tournament with the second-highest prize pool of all time, behind this year’s Dota 2 tournament The International (whose pool has now exceeded $30m).

The World Cup is split into several categories: Pro-Am, Creative, Solos and Duos.

There are 100 players in a match who must fight one another to be the last one standing. In duos, there are 50 teams of 2.

It took place last weekend (July 27th and 28th 2019).

 

Who won?

You can see all the winners in this tweet:

Congrats to all of our winners this weekend at the #FortniteWorldCup Finals

Solo Champion: @bugha
Duos Champions: @nyhrox @aquaa
ProAM: @Airwaks @RLGRIME
Creative: #FishFam @cizzorz @hiimtylerh @suezhoo @zandOfficial pic.twitter.com/ilBs7RTeTv

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) July 28, 2019

US player Bugha won the $3m top prize, while duos champions Nyhrox and Aquaa split $3m among themselves.

 

How did UK players perform and how much did they win?

The UK had a good showing at the Fortnite World Cup.

A few UK players reached the top ten in the duos tournament.

15-year-old Jaden ‘Wolfiez’ Ashman from Hornchurch (playing under the organisation known as Lazarus) finished second with his Dutch duo partner Dave ‘Rojo’ Jong. They received $2.25m (£1.8m) to split among them, meaning Jaden took home just under £1m himself.

How much money did the UK players receive from the #FortniteWorldCup ❓🤔

Congratulations to @Mongraal @WolfiezGG @benjyfishy @Atlantis_Tuckz @MexeFN @smeefly @CoreGamingg#BritishEsports 🇬🇧 pic.twitter.com/lSDtCIBysK

— British Esports Association (@British_Esports) July 30, 2019

Elsewhere, UK player Kyle ‘Mongraal’ Jackson finished 6th in the duos alongside Mitr0. They won a combined $450,000.

Also in the top ten, itemm finished eighth, taking home half of $375,000.

benjyfishy finished 14th, Tuckz finished 26th and Mexe finished 45th. Those three players received $50,000 (a split of $100,000 for them and their duo partner).

In the solos tournament, Mongraal finished 13th (winning $150,000), benjyfishy finished 25th, smeef 44th and CoreGamingg 49th (winning $50,000 each).

Overall, these UK players took home just shy of $2m ($1,987,500).

 

What the second-placed Brit (and his mum) had to say

You can hear what Jaden and his mother had to say in this interview with the BBC:

 

How popular was the Fortnite World Cup?

According to Esports Charts, the Fortnite World Cup had a peak viewership of 2.33m people. It had more than 4m hours watched overall.

Fortnite has some 250 million registered players around the world.

The World Cup took place at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York, which has a capacity of 23,000+.

The tournament also drew attention from mainstream broadcasters and publications, generating coverage on the likes of BBC, Sky News, TalkSport and more.

 

What the British Esports Association had to say

The British Esports Association’s head of education, Tom Dore, and schools and colleges liaison officer, Elliot Bond, gave interviews to several mainstream media outlets before, during and after the Fortnite World Cup.

Elliot gave 5 TV interviews, one on BBC Breakfast, two on BBC News, one on Sky News and one on BBC World News.

Tom Dore, meanwhile, appeared on 14 (!) radio shows throughout the event, including the following:

• BBC Radio Scotland
• Sky News Radio
• BBC Radio General News Service (11 regions including Leicester, Surrey, Wiltshire and more)

• BBC Three Counties Radio

Elsewhere, British Esports chair Andy Payne OBE and vice chair Rt. Hon. Ed Vaizey MP spoke to The Telegraph about the Fortnite World Cup and esports’ potential in the UK.

Kyle Cherry, FE games technology tutor at the Confetti Institute of Creative Technologies, which takes part in the British Esports Championships, also spoke on BBC Radio Nottingham.