That’s right, this game is turning kids into millionaires. Esports — an industry whose value is expected to pass the billion-dollar threshold this year — refers to the massive industrial complex of video game lovers who enjoy tracking and watching the top players compete against each other. Since Fortnite (and even the concept of esports) is still pretty new, it’s worth taking a look at how a swath of the top news outlets around the globe are covering the biggest game in the world and the massive July 26-28 event that two million viewers watched at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York City. Here’s every angle to know about the biggest esports event in recent history.
The Verge: “Fortnite is more of a place than a game”
First, The Verge talks about how the event highlights the game’s existence at the intersection of the internet and real life:
CNET: The big 16-year-old winner
CNET’s coverage detailed the winner, 16-year-old Kyle ‘Bugha’ Giersdorf, who took home $3 million for his efforts. “Much has been made about how Fortnite is more of a place than a game, a new kind of immersive social network. The World Cup showed that this could translate into the real world as well. Such is the blurry distinction between the two that when Marshmello announced that he would be performing a concert on Sunday afternoon, it wasn’t clear whether he meant onstage at the World Cup or in the game.”
Wired: “Fortnite is officially a tier 1 esport”
Where are Fortnite’s millions of views actually coming from? Twitch and YouTube, where the game’s audience lives and breathes. Wired unpacks a little background information on where Fortnite’s audience comes from: “Giersdorf started the day strong, winning the first of six games. In the next five games, he continued to place high and accumulate more eliminations, giving him the point lead. He kept the top spot throughout the day and had a commanding lead in the last game, where it seemed almost impossible for him to lose.”
The New York Times: Tennis fans
You can always trust the NYT to frame a Gen Z phenomenon so it can be understood by their core audience of, well, “definitely not Gen Z.” True to form, their overview contrasts the stadium’s Fortnite event, where the average age of contestants was 16, against the venue’s more Baby Boomer-friendly hosting gigs.
Polygon: Pro “removed from World Cup match for screen watching”
Gaming website Polygon delved deeper into the goings-on, explaining how one pro player got himself kicked out of the World Cup. That is all in the future, though. This weekend, Arthur Ashe Stadium was teeming with, well, teenagers. There were also preteens (with their attendant parents) and men in their 20s, and occasionally 30s.”
The Sun: “Now he’ll buy her a house”
Over in the UK, The Sun reports on one player’s million-pound haul, which he’ll use to prove to his mom that all those hour spent gaming really can pay off in the most literal sense possible. “According to the official World Cup rules, viewing anything other than your own setup at the event is not allowed. Players can’t receive ‘outside assistance regarding the location of other players, other players’ health or equipment, or any other information not otherwise known to the player by the information on his or her own screen (e.g., looking at or attempting to look at spectator monitors while currently in a match).’”
ESPN: Esports pros will win even more millions in the future
In 2009, South Korean esports star Lee Jae-dong was the highest prize-money earner in esports, with a haul of $86,265 for a full year of StarCraft: Brood War winnings. Needless to say, he’s dwarfed by the $3 million prize taken home by just one of many winners in a single weekend at the Fortnite World Cup. But just how big can we expect prize pools to grow in another decade? A lot, ESPN predicts. “The delighted schoolboy said: ‘I’m lost for words. My Twitter has been blowing up and I’ve had a load of messages from friends. I’m definitely going to buy a house but I haven’t got a clue where. And some Gucci shoes. I might buy a car for my mum too, as she drives a little Fiat 500.’”
CNN: The underdog story
There’s always an underdog. CNN takes a look at Emil “Nyhrox” Bergquist Pedersen of Norway and David “Aqua” Wang of Austria, who teamed up to win the duos category.
Kotaku: How the losers are handling things
Not every underdog takes home $3 million, of course, so Kotaku examined responses from four player who finished the Fortnite World Cup Solo finals with exactly zero points. They had a sense of humor about it. “‘Nyhrox and Aqua are good players but not many people had them going this far…pretty much every team was expected to do better than the team who won.’ said Rod Breslau, an esports and gaming consultant. ‘All of this makes for a good esports story.’”
Telegraph: What’s next? The Fortnite Championship Series
Finally, the Telegraph explained what Epic Games has planned next. Spring boarding off the success of their World Cup, they’re launching an entire new esports league. “Arius tweeted, ‘0 point wwwwwwwwwww.’” Read more tech culture news on Tech.co: “Named the Fortnite Championship Series, the league was revealed during the World Cup in New York where more than 100 players competed for a total prize pot of £24 million. “Epic Games is yet to reveal full details of the tournament’s structure, but said it will begin during Fortnite Season 10 and will “bring together the world’s best players”. The new season is set to begin on 1 August.”
Foldable Screens – a Bad Start, a Bright FutureFaceApp’s Russian Ties Spur Fears of Online Photo PrivacyGoogle Eyes Microsoft’s Surface Book with New 2-in-1 Tablet Patent
