15-year-old from Essex secures £1m in Fortnite World Cup winnings
"Then the dog ate his birth certificate and this is not a joke."
A fifteen-year-old from Essex has secured almost £1 million by coming second in the first Fortnite World Cup, beating off competition from almost forty million players who'd attempted to qualify alongside him.
Jaden "Wolfiez" Ashman, who teamed up for duos with Dutch teammate David "Rojo" Jong, were runner-ups after they were beaten 47-51 by Emil Bergquist Pedersen and David W., AKA Nyhrox and Aqua. They will split £1.8 million cash prize between them.
"I've actually thrown an XBox out, snapped a headset - we've had a nightmare," Ashman's mother, Lisa Dallman, told the BBC, admitting she had been "quite against" her teen son's love of gaming.
"Leading up to the games, getting his visa, we had problems with that so we had a week of a nightmare," she added. "Then the dog ate his birth certificate, so - and this is not a joke - this actually really did happen. And then my work messed up my wages, so three things went wrong before we started heading here so I knew we were on an even keel and everything was going to go right."
"Jaden's not really a materialistic person," she added, reflecting upon his winnings. "He will have a lifetime supply of Uber Eats, and I think that will do him to be fair. Just sitting there playing video games and eating takeaways - Jaden would be in his element."
Forty million players attempted to qualify for the competition over ten weeks of qualifiers, with Ashman being just one of 11 British players to make it through.
The Fortnite World Cup concludes later today. There's a $3 million prize pot for the winner of the singles championship.
