Tom B. July 29, 2019
16-year-old Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf became a millionaire in a single afternoon by winning the Fortnite World Cup solo player prize of $3 million. By winning that single event he has also instantly worked his way into the tenth position on the list of all-time esports earners.
The top 30 names on the list now contain Bugha and one other Fortnite player in Harrison “Psalm” Chang, who ranks at number 27. The other 28 names are from Dota 2, with the highest earning being Kuro “KuroKy” Takhasomi with a grand total of $4.2million.
Bugha now has a total career earnings higher than players from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive team Astralis combined despite only winning a single event. Astralis, who dominated almost every CSGO event in 2018 and were awarded the 2018 Esports Team of the Year award, have their players occupying positions in the 40s with Lukas “gla1ve” Rossander appearing at 53.
Bugha has received many messages of congratulations and support, with his victory message on Twitter being liked over 100,000 times and retweeted nearly 3,000 times.
It has not all been good news for the young champion, with hackers successfully managing to compromise Bugha’s social media channels. A message from Sentinels management was sent via his Twitter account.
“Bugha’s phone and social media accounts have been compromised. We are aware of the situation and are working to regain control,” Sentinels said.
It will come as a pleasing sign for many to see Bugha’s organization taking an active role in protecting the young player who has become a millionaire overnight.
The fact that esports events can come with such grand prize pools demonstrates huge growth in the scene, which Astralis star Nicolai “dev1ce” Reedtz took time to speak to.
“Let’s congratulate the people that grinded and won instead of being jealous. The way Fortnite brought the masses to video games is for the better of everyone,” dev1ce said.
Bugha has not used social media since the hack and has not yet unveiled what he intends to do with his enormous winnings.