Teenagers Win Millions At Fortnite World Cup (ign.com) 127
$30 million in prizes were up for grabs, the largest ever for an esports event, and more than 40 million attempted to qualify for a spot. Now IGN reports:
The grand champion of the Fortnite World Cup finals has been crowned. Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf, a 16-year-old American boy, took home the trophy and a $3 million prize... "Words can't even explain [how I feel] right now," Giersdorf said from the Champion's circle. "I'm just so happy. Everything I've done, the grind, it's all paid off. It's just insane."
And the Guardian reports that a 15-year-old won $1.25 million (£1m) when his two-man team placed second in the duos competition. He told the BBC that his mother initially thought he was wasting his time. "Now I've proved to her that I can do stuff, I'm really happy," he said. With regard to spending the prize money, his mother said her son was not materialistic, and that she anticipated he would spend the prize money on a "lifetime of Uber Eats".
IGN also reported on another Fortnite drama: A pair of Fortnite World Cup competitors, formerly banned by Epic for cheating, were the target of much ire Saturday, as the crowd loudly booed one's appearance onscreen and subsequently cheered for their loss...
Epic Games previously banned XXiF and Ronaldo from Fortnite for 14 days, after an internal review found that the players had colluded with other players in order to acquire easy elimination points during week 3 of the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers, according to Dexerto. The pair were subsequently dropped from their team, Rise Nation. That initially sounded like the end of the whole matter, but then XXiF and Ronaldo qualified during the week 8 qualifier, finishing in third place and securing a spot during the finals.
XXiF and Ronaldo ended up placing 28th during the duos finals, securing them $50,000 each in prize money.
Fornite had to ban more than 1,200 Fortnite accounts for cheating in just the first week of the World Cup Open online.
And the Guardian reports that a 15-year-old won $1.25 million (£1m) when his two-man team placed second in the duos competition. He told the BBC that his mother initially thought he was wasting his time. "Now I've proved to her that I can do stuff, I'm really happy," he said. With regard to spending the prize money, his mother said her son was not materialistic, and that she anticipated he would spend the prize money on a "lifetime of Uber Eats".
IGN also reported on another Fortnite drama: A pair of Fortnite World Cup competitors, formerly banned by Epic for cheating, were the target of much ire Saturday, as the crowd loudly booed one's appearance onscreen and subsequently cheered for their loss...
Epic Games previously banned XXiF and Ronaldo from Fortnite for 14 days, after an internal review found that the players had colluded with other players in order to acquire easy elimination points during week 3 of the Fortnite World Cup qualifiers, according to Dexerto. The pair were subsequently dropped from their team, Rise Nation. That initially sounded like the end of the whole matter, but then XXiF and Ronaldo qualified during the week 8 qualifier, finishing in third place and securing a spot during the finals.
XXiF and Ronaldo ended up placing 28th during the duos finals, securing them $50,000 each in prize money.
Fornite had to ban more than 1,200 Fortnite accounts for cheating in just the first week of the World Cup Open online.
Unlike politics (Score:2)
Even the appearance of impropriety is enough to eventually doom any sporting event alleged to represent a fair contest. It's why baseball, cricket, soccer, and basketball come down so hard on cheaters... the integrity of the game is more important than an individual player or team.
yes, however (Score:2)
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Esports will be a legitimate sporting event as soon as a league uses a game released as free software, such as Xonotic.
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What happens to the players once a game's publisher decides to shut down the game's league?
Using copyright to shut down tournaments (Score:2)
Then the players move on to other games.
Let's say the National Football League were to shut down, and the NCAA and NAIA were to shut down their own gridiron football programs as well. Would most players at the professional and collegiate levels be able to transition to rugby?
Of course, most majors will have side tournaments where players will compete in the older games
Unless the game's publisher uses copyright to shut down tournaments in the older games. For examples of this happening, see "Why Nintendo can legally shut down any Smash Bros. tournament it wants" by Kyle Orland [arstechnica.com].
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There is more movement than the average baseball game.
It's more likely to stimulate a bowel movement from the viewers than a baseball game.
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Bunch of dudes sitting in chairs all day hardly constitutes movement, well all but the porcelain throne kind.
Lifetime of Uber Eats (Score:3, Interesting)
That reminds me of a lot of young people today: play video games all day and order Uber eats and never leave the house. Lucky people!
Re:Lifetime of Uber Eats (Score:4, Insightful)
If that's what makes them fulfilled and happy, then yes. Personally that sounds like Hell and I even like playing video games and staying at home.
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Dude, do you even Crossfit?
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You like reading about video games and posting in video game threads though.
Obama care. In 10 years we will all be paying for the eight EMTs that it takes to haul his overweight corpse out of his mom's basement. So we all have something to say about the lifestyle.
If his mom had said that he was going to take his 3 million, go to college and maybe spend a summer hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, perhaps there would be less shit posting.
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That reminds me of a lot of young people today: play video games all day and order Uber eats and never leave the house. Lucky people!
No, lucky us. I'd rather have these folks staying at home all day, instead of wandering out into the streets and becoming somebody else's problem.
Re:Lifetime of Uber Eats (Score:5, Interesting)
That reminds me of a lot of young people today: play video games all day and order Uber eats and never leave the house. Lucky people!
No, lucky us. I'd rather have these folks staying at home all day, instead of wandering out into the streets and becoming somebody else's problem.
I'm not sure if you remember, but there was a story on slashdot a year or so ago that showed you're specifically correct. In urban areas where teens play more video games there is less teen crime and gang activity. There is probably some correlation as well as causation at play here; but, it turns out, if teens are shooting people online, they're not shooting people in the street. Encouraging gaming in gang-heavy areas takes would-be gang members off the street; they trade crime for cheetos.
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Isn't it possible that if it's too dangerous to go out then you get bored inside and ... play more videogames?
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Cheating happens in EVERY sport, they just have larger penalties so players avoid it. ESports bans
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Whoopdeeedoo, try being banned for an entire season, or life.
The latter can happen even if you do nothing wrong, once the game's publisher decides to shut down all existing leagues and assert its public performance copyright against any new leagues that pop up.
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Now I know why I am a failure: I cook myself! Need to change that....
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Well, cooking others is frowned upon, DAMHIK.
You have to cook others though. Most people can't cook themselves more than once, unless it's refried Jeannes.
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Your delivery driver [slashdot.org] thanks you.
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Looking at the photos, it looks like it is in a football stadium. Damn. Crazy stuff. I'm in the wrong business.
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I'm in the wrong business.
No you're not. The median fortnight player makes $0. (Which compares with the median video game player who also makes $0).
To get good you have to practice 9+ hours a day. It's bad for your physical and mental health to play video games that long each day; One or two kids winning money playing games does not make it a worthwhile business pursuit. Having fun relaxing with a video game a few hours a day... sure, that's good. Playing 9 hours a day competatively trying to become the best rather than doing
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And to stress... that's 9 hours a day playing the SAME game EVERY day for MONTHS on end... that's not fun, that's work and probably more stressful and less enjoyable than a regular 9-5.
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Actually I meant in the business of creating/selling video games and marketing them, not playing them. There seems to be an infinite appetite for video games.
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I meant the business side of video games and marketing, not playing.
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I don't get this, is this a two-week sleepover party or something?
I guess it's a fortnight [wikipedia.org] of Fortnite -- and the two punished players were banned from Fortnite for a fortnight.
Hate to break it to the mother (Score:2)
But her family sounds pretty dysfunctional, and $1M won't change that. If anything it'll likely get worse.
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Which is rather sad as for half of that you can live somewhere like Goulburn which is much much nicer than Sydney, or better yet spend just a fifth of that and get something quite splendid in Broken Hill, surrounded by glorious beautiful countryside and wildlife.
Sydney's a bit shit.
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Only comment to mention lottery, eh? But have to drop the topic on the AC. Why talk to permanent strangers?
Re:Hate to break it to the mother (Score:5, Insightful)
Having heard her being interviewed on the radio she sounds like a pretty normal mother.
She worries that her 15 year old is spending too much time playing computer games. She's told him he needs to do well at school. She nonetheless flew him to the US and supported him during the competition.
Her response to his winnings is a wry comment on his decision making skills. I suspect she'll be trying to help him use the money well - but also note that she's immediately describing it as his money.
I'd say she's doing ok.
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When children get large amounts of money it's usually put into some kind of trust controlled by their parents, until they are 18. Their parents can authorize spending from it before then. I'd imagine that's what has happened here.
This guy is going to have a pretty big boost to get started in life. Probably going to be getting a lot of romantic offers too. Glad his mum seems to be supportive and sensible.
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Not being able to control your child's video game addiction to the point of throwing out his xbox is healthy? You don't get to that point without some major issues. And then ultimately caving in. It's a dysfunctional family that lucked out.
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Am I the only one who doesn't give a shit? (Score:2)
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You give enough of a shit to let us know loudly that you are very actively not giving a shit.
If you don't care don't read the thread. It's not like this isn't massively news for nerds. Like seriously.
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Popular or not, I can't be the only person on the planet who doesn't give a shit about this.
Sports is frequently like that - around 1 in 3 people actually follow football, but from the way the fans go on about it you'd think almost everyone follows the sport.
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Are you a troll? You sound like one.
You're only allowed to comment on something if you like it, otherwise you're clearly and objectively angry about it!
If not a troll: you see the problem with your comment about my comment? You sure you're not angry? xD
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Popular or not, I can't be the only person on the planet who doesn't give a shit about this.
Nope. Every person on this planet doesn't give a shit about something. You're in company of many who don't give a shit about this particular thing, and not in good company of the many who do.
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You're not.
grind (Score:2)
"I'm just so happy. Everything I've done, the grind,
Anyone else still remember when games didn't have grind?
Damn, those were the days. I've been a gamer all my life, but recently I've so much lost interest because almost every game now is more like work than play. Dull, repetitive, unimaginative and full of stuff that you can't skip "just because".
Yes, I'm looking at every MMORPG ever especially, but almost every mobile game as well and so many of the others. I wish they would re-create C64 and early PC games with modern graphics and sounds.
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"I'm just so happy. Everything I've done, the grind,
Anyone else still remember when games didn't have grind?
This is about a different type of grind.
He isn't talking about "designed grind" in games. AFAIK the game they play doesn't even have that.
What he is talking about is the practice sessions needed to compete at that level.
If you want a shot at winning i tournament like that you don't do anything but train from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to bed.
It is the grind of treating it like more than a full time job.
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Fortnite doesn't have grind? We must've been playing a different game with the same name.
It doesn't have grind in the individual levels, that's true, it just plays too fast. But to get stuff for your character, there's quite a bit of grind involved. Though, honestly, I've mostly played the single player, not the battle royal (I'm that strange, maybe the only person on Earth who actually played the single player :-) ).
If he meant the other thing, he could've said "training" like every normal person.
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It may pay well for a very few people, (Score:2)
but it's still a waste of time. Now that there's big money in it, how many idiot kids will waste even more time on those stupid games thinking that they'll get rich doing it?
Use your brain to learn things while you're young and it's easy.
Prince Harry Was Right (Score:2)
Wow Great Investment! (Score:2)
Let's ignore the losers, eh? (Score:2)
Significance of the topic is how the "winners" get to tell their stories, but the vastly larger number of losers get ignored. Actually, the REAL winner is the company that has found so many suckers that it can afford the publicity of YUGE [sic] prizes. It would be much better if lottery stories gave equal time to the losers.
There's also the behaviorist aspect. We don't have to act like idiotic and easily misprogrammed machines, but that isn't the way to bet, eh? You know, the thing about the race is not alw
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Isn't the whole point of the game players being, well, you know, targets?
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But pwning n00bz = LULZ!
Re:Greed is ruining gaming, and everything else (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Greed is ruining gaming, and everything else (Score:5, Interesting)
Problem is the lower ranked groups tend to be full of people who don't want to play properly and ruin the game. It's particularly bad with racing games where most drivers have little interest in proper racing and just ram opponents off the circuit or ignore the track limits. Sure they get penalties and end up losing but it's still no fun for serious players.
The matching system needs a "kiddy pool" area as well as a "serious but not high level" one.
Re:Greed is ruining gaming, and everything else (Score:5, Interesting)
No, online shooters need the ability to host your own server, so that you can find one populated by people with a broad mix of skills that welcome and help teach new players, engage constructively with each other over chat and give everybody a chance to play with people with different playstyles.
But maybe I'm just nostalgic.
Re:Greed is ruining gaming, and everything else (Score:4, Insightful)
Nostalgia I think. Back when it was all private servers it was hard to find good ones, and they were often closed off to new people anyway. That's one reason why GameSpy was so popular; it made it much easier to find open, half-decent servers. It didn't have any matchmaking though, you just had to get good or suffer.
Remember that such servers were also where the "12 year old screaming racist abuse" stereotype came from. By comparison even the lower ranked lobbies on kiddie games like Forza are relatively civil these days because although Microsoft doesn't care about ramming and not playing seriously, they so issue bans for abusive language.
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No, it took a few sessions to find a good server but there were plenty of servers that were hosted by clans or friends, and they'd clamp down on cheating and on abuse, and welcomed people willing to play fairly, especially if they were willing to try and join in team play.
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You are nostalgic. Your own server was great for a 1 on 1 with mates or for a little lan party but for an online based computer game in general it was incredibly sub optimal. It didn't allow for proper match making, it typically resulted in you joining some boys club of elitist wankers who run the server, and really it provided no real benefit to games on the whole.
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it typically resulted in you joining some boys club of elitist wankers who run the server, and really it provided no real benefit to games on the whole
No, it did not. Because there were many servers and you could set up your own and ban elitist wankers or boys if that was your preference.
The rest of us found friendly servers run by actual gamers that were happy to share and have fun playing a game. Forgive me being utterly confused at how that provides no real benefit to games as a whole.
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You are nostalgic. Your own server was great for a 1 on 1 with mates or for a little lan party but for an online based computer game in general it was incredibly sub optimal. It didn't allow for proper match making, it typically resulted in you joining some boys club of elitist wankers who run the server, and really it provided no real benefit to games on the whole.
Sometimes, but not always. In the 00's was in a gaming group of mature non-wanker adults and we ran/admined a public Counter-Strike server. There were a few reserve slots for members of our group, but otherwise we didn't play favorites. We kept the abusive language and blatant cheating in check. There were in-game kick and map voting options to give everyone some control in addition to direct admin moderation. The server had player stats tracking that people could check online, and an active community forum
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I want to play against other people that suck, not people who have prestiged three times and get a bazillion bonuses from that. If your K/D ratio gets very far out from 1:1, you should be moved into a different bracket.
How about play games that don't skill-lock weapons, equipment, or classes? If you like FPSs, especially hardcore FPSs and not run and gun bunny hop and dolphin dive fests, look into Insurgency (and Insurgency:Sandstorm) and Rising Storm 2:Vietnam. All weapons and classes on both games are immediately available(except Commander in RS2:VN which is level locked since it controls support such as artillery, AA, and spawn boosts). The only unlocks you get as you level up are cosmetic, with no real impact on ga
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