This 16-Year-Old Just Won $3M Playing Video Games

All of those hours playing video games have paid off for a young teenager from Pennsylvania. 

Kyle Giersdorf, 16, beat out 100 competitors in the Fortnite World Cup, an e-sports tournament held over the weekend in New York, winning a cool $3M. The tournament offered a whopping $30M in cash prizes.

Some 40 million players competed for a chance to play in the finals, which was narrowed down to 100 contestants from 30 countries.

Despite his young age, Giersdorf’s been working towards this goal for a long time. 

“He’s been playing video games since he was three, so this is his passion,” Giersdorf’s mother, Darcy, told ESPN. “He told us he could do this, he put his mind to it and he did it.

The tournament invited players of any skill level to potentially win the $3 million prize pool.

So long as players were over the age of 13 and managed to qualify for the games of their choice (Solos, Duos, or Creative), they were able to join the biggest players from e-sports organizations around the world for a shot at fame, fortune, and e-sports notoriety.

With every participant receiving $50,000 regardless of where they placed, the mere act of competing in the “Super Bowl of Fortnite” was a boon. Can we sign up next time?!