At the age of 16, the American Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf was already taken care of: he took part in the Fortnite World Cup in summer 2019 and won the main prize: a whopping 3 million US dollars. But how did the career of the shooting star go afterwards?
How did Bugha win the $3 million?
Fortnite: The time a black hole swallowed you all
There has never been so much prize money at Fortnite
Did he keep winning money after that? In his further career, after 2019, Bugha continued to be successful in Fortnite and got good rankings. But he never came close to his huge profit from 2019 again, because Fortnite was no longer about such high sums as at the World Cup. This was a unique experience (via esportearnings):
Bugha won $3 million at the World Cup. In the 4 years around it was “only” $492,986 in prize money.
Why was there never again as much money as for Bugha? After the Fortnite World Cup, Epic never hosted such a big event for so much prize money, instead they fragmented e-sports, took it online and ran many smaller prize money tournaments throughout the year.
Epic Games itself cited “Covid” as the reason why the World Cup was no longer played live on site.
In fact, the World Cup also proved to be a structural problem for Fortnite, for a year everything revolved around this one day in July. The hype was relatively high before and during the World Cup. After the World Cup was played, however, interest in Fortnite dropped significantly.
That was obviously a problem for Epic Games, because Epic Games presumably wants Fortnite to be relevant especially at Christmas, when the wallet is loose and the kids are buying new skins en masse. A spike in Fortnite interest in July and a dip in interest thereafter wasn’t really in the spirit of Epic Games. But the World Cup caused just such a drop in interest.
Fortnite: Twitch Viewership Plunges – Is It Just Tfue and Ninja?
In retrospect, there were great doubts as to whether everything went “clean” at the World Cup
This could be the real reason there was never another World Cup like this: In addition, there were considerable doubts about the sporting integrity of the event in retrospect: Many of those who made big gains at the World Cup had trained with a 19-year-old coach, Hugh Gilmour, also known as Destinyjesus. His “protégés” had won $17 million out of $30 million at the World Cup.
There was a serious suspicion that the coaching mainly consisted of the coach’s players making agreements about where they should land on the map and what their routes should look like from there. One goal could be that the coach’s players avoid each other for as long as possible at the Fortnite World Cup and thus increase their chances of winning.
Because in Fortnite, those who survive for a long time and don’t waste their resources fighting top players of the same strength have the best chance of winning. At the World Cup, therefore, players who played defensively and didn’t enter every fight tended to win, while hot-blooded pistolos got a lot of kills but also dropped out of a round early.
While it was never really clarified how much manipulation was involved, there is certainly a reason why Epic Games left it at a single World Cup: The “Battle Royale” format is simply too susceptible to manipulation and collusion.
Bugha makes Twitch Top 50 with Fortnite victory behind him
How was Bugha doing outside of esports? Like many e-athletes in Fortnite, Bugha is active on Twitch, where he had almost no viewers before the World Cup. Immediately after the World Cup success, however, his numbers increased:
Bugha making the most of his moment in glory – is the clean man of Fortnite
How was he after the win? Bugha is a very good Fortnite player and a nice young man, but is not now suspected of being insanely entertaining or having “star potential” like other Fortnite-era Twitch streamers.
The most successful streamers from this era like Tfue, Pokimane, Ninja, Nickmercs, TimTheTatman or Myth are unique in their own way, entertaining and retaining viewers.
These streamers have used Fortnite to build careers on Twitch and have been relevant for years. Some, like TimTheTatman and Myth, have cashed their success in a lucrative YouTube deal. Bugha doesn’t quite play in the league.
However, Bugha managed to get quite a bit out of his moment in glory at the Fortnite World Cup. So he got his own skin in Fortnite from Epic in mid-2021. He entered into promotional deals with a clothing brand and a bank.
What happened to the 15-year-old who his mom took out of school so he could spend more time in Fortnite?
Bugha is loyal to Fortnite to this day – but his team is giving up
Unlike other well-known Fortnite players like Benjyfishy, Ninja or Tfue, who have all turned their backs on Fortnite over the years, Bugha never did and to this day almost exclusively shows Fortnite on his Twitch channel.
However, Bugha also notices that something is getting out of Fortnite. At Christmas 2022, his Fortnite team Sentinels said goodbye to e-sports in Fortnite and the 19-year-old has to look for a new team.
Bugha thanks the team for the “era” and this “memorable chapter of his career” – but is also looking forward to starting a new chapter in 2023.
It’s safe to say that Bugha made the most of his opportunities and huge win in 2019:
Bugha is scandal-free, a “clean man” compared to other Fortnite players and Twitch streamers like young Clix.
When Epic Games introduced Bugha and his family in a home story in 2019, the world of Bugha and his family looked so sparkling clean and perfect that many fans were jealous of how close the family was and how great it all was.
Fortnite tells about the world champion – kids are jealous because of their parents