Norway was well-represented at the first Epic Games’ world e-sport championship in gaming over the weekend. Emil “Nyhrox” Bergquist Pedersen of Tønsberg won the duo competition along with his Austrian partner, Tomas “Aqua” Arnould, while two other Norwegian teenagers finished 24th and 29th in solo play.
They’ll all come home considerably wealthier, with Pedersen and Arnould splitting winnigs of USD 3 million (NOK 25.7 million). That’s much more than the tennis celebrities get who normally play at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York where the esport championship played out before nearly 24,000 fans.
The 16-year-old Pedersen was ecstatic, saying the huge winnings reflect “how much we’ve put into the game (called Fortnite) and how seriously we take it.” He added that he played for his friends, his father and his fans.
Two 14-year-old Norwegian players, Endre “Endretta” Byre and Martin “Mr Savage” Foss Andersen, had also qualified for the tournament and will be coming home with big winnings. They could claim USD 50,000 each for their standings in the individual play segment, while Andersen also won USD 50,000 for placing 14th in the duo competition.
Oslo-based magazine D2 reported that an estimated 250 million people play Fortnite for free around the world. The large winnings are made possible by the so-called “in-game purchases” from developer Epic Games, which amounted to more than USD 1 billion by last summer, according to D2.
American gamer Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf won the solo competition, pocketing a record USD 3 million on his own.
newsinenglish.no staff
