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Teenager Wins Millions Playing Fortnite

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

How quickly life can change. Just last week, Kyle Giersdorf was a video game-loving teenager. Today, he is a video game-loving millionaire, all thanks to his talents when it comes to this.

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UNIDENTIFIED ANNOUNCER: For the first game, Victory Royale. Oh, my gosh. Confident play from Bugha.

GREENE: Kyle, who goes by the gamertag Bugha, won the first-ever Fortnite World Cup, a tournament for the video game that boasts 250 million registered players - not bad for a 16-year-old from Potts Grove, Pa.

KYLE GIERSDORF: Nothing pretty much felt real, honestly. But at the same time, I don't know. I just had no emotion coming out of me right then. I was just really happy for all the grind that I put into the game for it to finally pay off.

GREENE: Pay off - pay off? Yeah, what a payoff. It was $3 million. But don't think for a minute that Giersdorf is going to squander this prize money.

GIERSDORF: What I'm going to do with it is invest it and save it, put it towards my future. But most importantly, I think I want to get a new desk. I could use a little bit more space.

GREENE: Kyle says his parents are proud of him and his hard work playing six hours of Fortnite each day.

GIERSDORF: It's like a job. We put in the same amount of hours as many other people would for anything else. So yeah, I just see it as a normal job. I'm doing hard work and just have it pay off.

GREENE: All work and some play.

(SOUNDBITE OF PENSEES' "MODAL") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

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