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15-year-old Jaden “Wolfiez” Ashman from Essex, UK, has secured the runner-up prize in the Fortnite World Cup. He will share the £1.8 million prize with his Dutch partner, David “Rojo” Jong, after being beaten 47-51 by Emil Bergquist Pedersen and David W., AKA Nyhrox and Aqua, in the duos final.
The teenager was one of almost 40 million players who’d attempted to qualify for the tournament over ten weeks of qualifiers, and just one of 11 UK players to reach the finals.
Admitting she had been “quite against” her teen son’s love of gaming, Lisa Dallman, Ashman’s mother, admitted to the BBC (thanks, Eurogamer): “I’ve actually thrown an Xbox out, snapped a headset – we’ve had a nightmare.
“Leading up to the games, getting his visa, we had problems with that so we had a week of a nightmare,” she added. “Then the dog ate his birth certificate, so – and this is not a joke – this actually really did happen. And then my work messed up my wages, so three things went wrong before we started heading [to New York for the finals] so I knew we were on an even keel and everything was going to go right.”
“Jaden’s not really a materialistic person,” she added, commenting upon his prize fund. “He will have a lifetime supply of Uber Eats, and I think that will do him to be fair. Just sitting there playing video games and eating takeaways – Jaden would be in his element.”
The winner of the solo tournament was 16-year-old Kyle Giersdorf, who scooped the $3 million top prize. As GI.biz points out, this is just a little more than the top prize awarded to the winner of the men’s solo tournament at Wimbledon each year.
“Emotionally, right now, I don’t feel too much, except I know that this could pretty much change my life forever,” Giersdorf told ESPN. “It’s just absolutely unreal.”
In all, Epic donated $30 million to the World Cup prize pool, and a total of $100 million across all Fortnite competitions this year.
