A young woman competes in a video gaming tournament in Russia. (DreamstimePhoto / 130273064 © Roman Kosolapov)

By Brady Bateman

A sport or not?

P.A. competitive gamers take part in Fortnite Championship

Aug 1, 2019 | 5:00 PM

Following the recent Fortnite World Cup, which saw 16-year-old American Kyle Giersdorf walk away with the $3 million top prize, Prince Albert has several youths hoping to cash in on a more modest regional event.

The Saskatchewan Fortnite Championships, taking place in Regina, began July 31 and run until August 2. The event will host more than 200 competitors vying for the prize money, and a chance to be recognized in the industry, with the end goal of making it big.

“This is the first tournament I’ve been in where I’ve had to do any travelling. I’ve competed in a few others like this one, but they were just all online,” said 16-year-old Marcus Pickard, one of four Prince Albert competitors taking part in the championships.

“It will add a bit of a new element to it. When you are all playing online, the people with the better internet connection have a bit of an advantage. At this tournament everyone all plays with the same connection so it’s really [about] just how good you are.”

Fortnite is an online video game that has about 250 million users worldwide. Developed by Epic Games, it pits players against each other in a battle royale – where 100 players fight to be the last man standing.

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Pickard spoke to paNOW about the rising wave of e-sports competitions, and the growing interest in video games over traditional sports.

Since Fortnite’s release, he estimates he”d played more than 3,000 hours – meaning since the games battle royale release in 2017 he has averaged four hours per day, every day.

“It’s definitely something I want to make a career out of. At this point, most of the time I’m not playing for fun; it’s more of training for the big games, but sometimes I don’t take it seriously and just goof around,” Pickard said.

“If I do well at this tournament my next step would be to start streaming for people to watch me.”

Pickard views competitive video games as real sports, noting that some professional level athletes make less than competitive gamers, and that the amount of time spent training and honing the craft is similar to a traditional athlete.

“Other generations just aren’t used to this idea of video games being sports yet, so they just don’t accept it,” he said. “For the past month and a half, I’ve been practicing for this tournament. If I’m playing, I want to be practicing and focused on getting better.”

The top four players in the Saskatchewan Fortnite Championships will receive a portion of the $10,000 prize pool, as follows: First place – $7,500, second place – $1,500, third place – $750, and fourth place – $250.

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Brady.bateman@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @TheDigitalBirdy