16-year-old wins $3 million at Fortnite World Cup

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Monday, July 29, 2019
Fortnite World Championship: Pennsylvania 16-year-old Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf wins $3M
Beating out other pros and famous streamers, Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf, 16, made a name for himself by dominating from the first round and ultimately taking home the $3 million grand

NEW YORK -- A 16-year-old is now a millionaire after he won the first Fortnite World Cup.

Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf went home to Pennsylvania with a $3 million prize for winning the solo competition.

Giersdorf won with 59 points, comfortably beating his closest rival, who finished with 33 points. That second-place winner, Harrison Chang, took home $1.8 million.

The winners of the duo competition, a Norwegian-Austrian pair, also took home $3 million.

For comparison, the tennis players who win the U.S. Open at the same venue in a few weeks will get $3.85 million.

Fortnite has taken the world by storm since being released in 2017, currently boasting about 250 million registered users.

The World Cup final took place at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. Thousands of fans were in attendance and more than a million were watching via streaming services.

There are reports Giersdorf's social media accounts were hacked shortly after the win. His Twitter account had retweeted a Tweet with derogatory comments.