NEW YORK, July 28 (Reuters) &#8211; American teenager Kyle Giersdorf won $3 million on Sunday in New York after taking the top prize in a tournament for the popular online video game Fortnite.



Geirsdorf, 16, from Pennsylvania, was one of at least 100 players competing for $30 million in total prize money, as the booming popularity of video and online games has drawn top-dollar investments and fueled the emerging professional sport. Global revenues from esports, or professional video game competitions, will hit $1.1 billion in 2019, up 27 percent since last year, thanks to ballooning revenues from advertising, sponsorship and media rights, according to a report released earlier this year.



Playing under the name “Bugha,” Giersdorf won the solo finals portion of the Fortnite World Cup by scoring 59 points, 26 more than his nearest competitor “psalm,” according to the Fortnite World Cup Leaderboard, posted on the game’s website.



“Words can’t even explain it. I’m just so happy,” Giersdorf said in an interview at the event at Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York, posted by organizers on Twitter. “Everything I’ve done, the grind, it’s all paid off. It’s just insane.”



Giersdorf did not immediately respond to a request for comment.



Launched in 2017, Fortnite’s popularity has helped Epic Games reach a $15-billion-valuation last year. It competes with other games like Electronic Arts Inc’s Apex Legends and Tencent Holdings Ltd’s PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.



Overall, the global video and electronic games market, excluding revenues from esports, will generate $152.1 billion in 2019, up 9.6% over last year, according to a report by gaming analytics firm Newzoo.



Reporting By Elizabeth Dilts Editing by Sonya Hepinstall

16-year-old wins $3 million at first ever Fortnite World Cup video game tournament

#TheHashtag: 16 year old wins $3 million Fortnite World Cup solo prize

By <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/elizabeth-gravier/">Elizabeth Gravier</a>



Before Elon Musk became obsessed by space travel and electric cars, he was a kid who played&nbsp;<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-favorite-video-games-photos-2017-1" class="">a lot of video games</a>.



Speaking at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVW50KRaBd8" class="">video game convention</a>&nbsp;in Los Angeles earlier this month, Musk addressed the impact video games have had on his vision and the careers of engineers everywhere.



“Part of the reason, maybe the reason, I got interested in tech was video games, ” Musk said. “I probably wouldn’t have started programming if it wasn’t for video games or wouldn’t have been as interested in computers and tech if it wasn’t for video games. I think video games are a very powerful force for getting young kids interested in technology; it has way bigger knock-on effects than people may realize.”



Musk speaks from experience. At just 12 years old, he coded and published a space fighting game called “Blastar” which later&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/10/04/the-first-jobs-of-15-billionaires-like-warren-buffett-and-jeff-bezos.html" class="">sold for $500</a>&nbsp;to trade publication PC and Office Technology magazine. He once worked at a gaming startup ( “Which weirdly was called Rocket Science — fate loves irony,” Musk has joked). And though his&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/16/business/elon-musk-interview-tesla.html" class="">more recent birthdays</a>&nbsp;may have been spent pulling all-nighters at Tesla, Musk once celebrated his birthday by asking for a life-size statue of Vault Boy – the fictional mascot character from&nbsp;<a href="https://fallout.bethesda.net/en/" class="">video game Fallout</a>.



But Musk isn’t the only one who has found inspiration – and success – through gaming. The link between the two is obvious when he interviews his future employees.



“If we’re interviewing somebody for a software engineering role at Tesla or SpaceX, many times we’ll [ask], ‘How’d you start programming?’” Musk says.



“I think many of the best software engineers in the world are at, or spent much of their career at, video game houses,” Musk says, emphasizing how problem-solving in video games transfers over to problem-solving in software engineering. “If people had to try to create incredibly realistic graphics using very little computer power, it’s a hard problem, so a lot of people had to write really tight code and come up with really clever ideas to do that.”



For Musk’s team at Tesla, the enhanced graphics in video games enable them to better simulate self-driving cars with the help of artificial intelligence. Hetasks his simulation team with creating a photorealistic world of what he says are some of the most boring things: skid marks on the road, concrete curves, shadows, and faded street lines. These simulations have been essential to the development of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.motortrend.com/news/consumer-reports-right-wrong-tesla-autopilot/" class="">autopilot cars</a>, which are scheduled for a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/22/18510828/tesla-elon-musk-autonomy-day-investor-comments-self-driving-cars-predictions" class="">full rollout next year</a>.



He also credited video game <a class="" href="https://www.cyberpunk.net/us/en/pre-order">Cyberpunk</a> (as well as the movie “Blade Runner”) as the inspiration for the <a class="" href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/12/14/elon-musk-tweets-about-tesla-pickup-truck-prototype-for-2019.html">Tesla pickup truck</a>.



“It definitely doesn’t look like a normal car, it looks like it should not be on the roads, like it came out of a movie or something,” Musk says. “It won’t appeal to everyone, but it’ll be something that’s different. I think I would buy it.”



Musk wasn’t just at E3 to talk about his new pickup truck. He announced the addition of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/bored-charging-your-tesla-play-videogame-your-car/" class="">video games to Tesla vehicles</a>&nbsp;— drivers can play games on the car’s center screen while docked at a charging station. He even hinted at developing games for his space capsules going to Mars.



“My experience is, if you’re trying to figure out what others love, but you don’t love it, it’s really hard to make that great,” he says. “So when you work on something, if you fall in love with it, that’s a good sign – and then don’t worry about if others do. If you do, others will.”



This article first appeared on CNBC <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/28/elon-musk-talks-about-how-video-games-got-him-hooked-on-programming.html">https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/28/elon-musk-talks-about-how-video-games-got-him-hooked-on-programming.html</a> and is republished with its permission.

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16-year-old wins $3 million at first ever Fortnite World Cup video game tournament

#TheHashtag: 16 year old wins $3 million Fortnite World Cup solo prize

Billionaire Elon Musk says playing video games is how he and ‘many of the best software engineers’ got into programming

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16-year-old wins $3 million at first ever Fortnite World Cup video game tournament

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Billionaire Elon Musk says playing video games is how he and ‘many of the best software engineers’ got into programming

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