Fortnite World Cup Finals 2019: Bugha's Top Plays, Prize Money

Three days of play, $36 million in prize winnings and an average age of 16 years old. For the first time ever, the best Fortnite players from around the world joined to compete on LAN. And to cap it all off, the biggest individual prize in esports history, $3 million, was dominantly earned by Pennsylvania's Bugha.

After months of online qualifiers between over 40 million players, and $10 million in prize money already doled out, the Fortnite World Cup Finals has concluded in New York City's Arthur Ashe Stadium. 

Day 1 was the Creative Finals and Celebrity Pro-Am, each with a $3 million prize pool. Days 2 and 3 were the Fortnite Duo and Solo Finals, respectively, and their cumulative $30 million prize pool. The former was won by Europe's Nyhrox and Aqua, the latter by the USA's Bugha.

Day 1: Creative Finals and Celebrity Pro-Am

The World Cup festivities got the Slurp Juice flowing early with tense, entertaining moments during the Creative Finals and Celebrity Pro-Am. 

The Creative Finals consisted of eight teams competing in four sets of creative modes (Sky Station Showdown, Junkyard Juke, World Run and the Golden Games). Each team was composed of four players: one professional player and three players who qualified online. Fish Fam, led by FaZe Cizzorz, earned first place and its $1.345 million prize, followed by Funky Fighters ($345,000) and Raven's Revenge ($315,000).

The Celebrity Pro-Am was a more traditional, Duos format with 50 Fortnite pros being paired with 50 celebrities. After a ton of back-and-forth in the standings, Swiss pro Airwaks and American DJ RL Grime pulled away with first-place honors. As all $3 million of the Pro-Am's prize pool gets donated to charity, Grime donated his portion to the American Civil Liberties Union and Airwaks to the World Wildlife Fund.

Day 2: Duo Finals

Controller gang rise up! Europe stomped the second day of the Fortnite World Cup and one of the top finishers, the United Kingdom's Wolfiez, was one of just two players all weekend to use a controller. Representing Cooler Esport, European teenagers Nyhrox and Aqua pulled off clutch wins in Matches 4 and 5 to earn first place and $3 million.

Another European duo, Rojo and Wolfiez, earned second place and $2.25 million. And for some much-needed North American representation, 100 Thieves' Elevate and Ceice won third place's $1.8 million. Every single qualifier came away with at least $50,000, but it was Nyhrox and Aqua's second-half dominance and high-ground usage that pulled in the big bucks.

Day 3: Solo Finals

Experienced, celebrity pros like Tfue and Bizzle were popularly expected to win the World Cup Solo Finals. But none of that mattered to Pennsylvania's Bugha once the Battle Bus first took flight. 

Bugha is a 16-year-old professional player for the Sentinels and dominated the Solo Finals from Match 1. He had nine eliminations and a nasty impulse grenade play to earn high ground and the Victory Royale in Match 1. Then, he kept earning elims and high placements across the next five maps to comfortably remain atop the standings.

Bugha ended in first place with 59 points, while second place went to Psalm (33 points, $1.8 million) and third went to EpikWhale (32 points, $1.2 million). Argentinian 13-year-old King also deserves a shoutout since he had the second-most eliminations in the tournament en route to 30 points, fifth place and $900,000.

By nearly doubling Psalm's points, Bugha delivered an absurdly dominant performance in the biggest Fortnite event ever and the most profitable individual esports achievement in history. Congratulations to all of the World Cup's qualifiers, but special props to the scariest of them all: the Bugha man.