Sunday 17 November 2019 07:31, UK
Sixteen-year-old Fortnite player Kyle 'Bugha' Giersdorf admits he’s "surprised" to win Esports PC Player of the Year at the 2019 Esports Awards.
Bugha, who took home $3 million in prize money after winning the Fortnite World Cup earlier this year, came in ahead of Oleksandr 's1mple' Kostyliev and Luka 'Perkz' Perkovic.
Despite winning one of the most highly-anticipated tournaments of the year, amassing nearly 500,000 Twitter followers since his rise to fame and winning PC Rookie of the Year earlier in the evening, the 16-year-old didn't expect to win Player of the Year.
He told us: "I'm feeling very surprised right now, I didn't expect to win the last award but it's been a good night. I thought there were a lot of talented players in my category, I just didn't expect it to be honest.
"It feels great to beat some of the other players in the category because they've been in the scene forever. For me, coming out and winning one tournament and getting this award is just amazing."
In his acceptance speech, Bugha expressed some excitement for the future of esports and the youngster is hopeful for some bigger things in the industry.
He said: "I love esports and I love everything that's going on right now, I think it has a bright future. Right now it's blowing up mostly in the media and I'm just excited to see what happens to it in the future. I think it'll take over a lot of other things.
"It's not just Fortnite that's going to get bigger, I watch so many other esports such as League of Legends and CSGO. I've never got into it but I really enjoy watching them."
Bugha was an unlikely winner at this year's Fortnite World Cup but he will surely be one of the ones to watch should Epic Games decide to bring back the World Cup for 2020. And when asked whether he could emerge victorious next year, the 16-year-old's answer was simple.
"For sure," he said. "I got enough confidence you know?"
