Bugha Wins Fortnite Solo World Cup

On the final day of the Fortnite World Cup, the best 100 Fortnite players from around the world competed in the Solo portion of the World Cup. While the Duos portion of events has generally been the more popular of the two events, the solo event stood out at the World Cup this past weekend, with more than two million viewers watching live all throughout the event today. Interestingly enough, the viewership on YouTube was almost equal to that of Twitch (1M to 1.3M), alluding to the games mainstream popularity as many soft-core gamers are unaware that the streaming-only platform even exists.

The day kicked off with some smoke, as Fortnite-endorsed musician Marshmello held a concert at the venue before the matches started at 1 pm. The concert set the tone for the rest of the day and the games only got more and more intense as the players closed in on the 3 million dollar prize pool.

Fan Favorites

As the contest played on, we began to see more and more of a few familiar faces in the broadcast. The first player to receive the spotlight’s attention was King, a thirteen-year-old gaming prodigy from Argentina. King stood out from the competition from the very start with a seven kill, 20th places (10 points) finish in the first game of the competition. He was not even close to being finished, as he returned to the spotlight just in time for fans to witness him eliminate Turney “Tfue” Tenney, who came into the event a favorite. King finished in 5th place with 30 points.

As for Tfue, his day did not go as he had hoped. Early this morning, Turner took to Twitter in an effort to showcase his confidence in himself going into the event. He tweeted, “I got my leopard print vest ready to TTV dunk on these fools.” While confidence is key, too much of it might have been the key to Turner’s failure today in the Solo event. Apart from a respectable final game, Tfue managed to earn just a single point in the first five matches of the event. Tfue did not place in the top 20.

Another player who, like Turner, has participated in competitive Fortnite for longer than most other solo competitors, was psalm. Psalm, like most, would if they won a game in the Fortnite World Cup, was unable to hold back his emotions after winning the third game of the event. Luckily, the stream was on a delay and his mic was on mute by the time the broadcast reached the live audience online. Psalm, who was silent in the first two games, made an epic comeback in the homestretch of the event to finish second overall with 33 points.

One final player who put on a showing today was Dubs. Dubs, a member of Faze Clan, qualified for the Solo portion of the tournament in four of the five qualifier events, making him a clear-cut favorite for fans going into Sunday. Dubs stuck with the strategy that got him to the event, by steering clear of opponents until the final circles and generally focusing more on placement than eliminations. This strategy landed Dubs a second-place finish in game two and an impressive win in game four, giving him a total of 21 points and a 15th overall finish.

The Winner

While many played well, none came close to challenging the eventual winner of the event, Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf. Bugha, who qualified in first place during the first week of Solo Qualifiers, dominated the lobby from drop to victory royale as he won the first game with nine eliminations and never looked back. The fourteen-year-old finished with an incomparable 59 points, almost double that of the second-place finisher, psalm.

The Senators Gaming superstar had already won the event by the start of the final game, as the news of his dominance took to Twitter as the youngster was the most trending topic on the social media site before the final game even began. When he won, Bugha stood up an opened his arms to the crowd, as if to ask if they were entertained by his performance.

They sure were, as the stadium erupted whenever the young gamer was mentioned by the broadcasters for the remainder of the event. When it was time to be named Champion of the Fortnite community, Bugha walked up to the stage and took the trophy that he rightfully earned.

The fourteen-year-old was soon joined by his family, who rushed the stage to congratulate their newly-skinned champion. This was a powerful moment. It surely resonates with every gamer, old or young, who at one point in time wished for something like this to happen to them. The emotion was powerful and unable to be ignored.

Final Results

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Featured image via @FortniteGame on Twitter.