Benjy Fish, from Middlesex, is ranked among the best in the world at Fortnite
A 15-year-old boy has earned £25,000 playing Fortnite and is now chasing millions at the game’s World Cup – which has a prize pool of £23million.
Benjy Fish, from Middlesex, is ranked among the best in the world at the popular online arena game – and has guaranteed himself another £50,000 by qualifying for this year’s Fortnite World Cup, which boasts a prize pool of £23million.
Benjy will be competing at the event in New York this July – having been encouraged to drop school by his mother Anne, who acts as his manager, the Mirror reported.
The teenage gamer, who has more than 150,000 subscribers on his YouTube channel and nearly 120,000 followers on Twitch, told the paper when his mother suggested he quit school to focus on his eSports career, he didn’t believe it – saying it had been his dream since he was 13.
‘My mum didn’t think I was all that good at it at first until I woke her up in the middle of the night to say I’d won £10,000 in an online competition against the top players in Europe,’ he said.
‘That’s when things really started to take off and I was signed as a professional by the games computer NRG eSports – one of the top eSports teams around.
‘Up until that point, I’d been (badly) juggling going to school with playing Fortnite into the early hours seven days a week.’
Pictured: Benjy’s avatar ‘Benjyfish’ in Fortnite. He will be competing at the game’s World Cup in New York this July
Benjy has qualified for the solos and duos finals, which, if he wins, both could see the 15-year-old take home roughly £4million
Benjy added that he would often fall asleep in lessons, and after his £10,000 win his teachers couldn’t believe it – with his music teacher Mr Smith joking that the teenager was earning more than most of the school’s staff.
He said he had played Call of Duty on Xbox since age seven after his older brother Charles introduced him to it, but over the last year he has worked his way up to become one of the best Fortnite players in the world.
His mother suggested he switch to homeschooling at the close of Easter term, and Benjy now says he plays until 4am, getting up at 2pm so he can concentrate on his gaming career.
Benjy ‘Benjyfishy’ with his duo partner Mr Savage
But tutors still visit him to ‘fit in’ his GCSE work – which he is now taking over three years instead of two, he said.
The teenager added that leaving school was the ‘best thing’ for him, because a few weeks after he qualified for the Fortnite World Cup – guaranteeing himself £50,000 in prize money for qualifying, with a £23million prize pool.
Benjy has qualified for the solos and duos finals, which, if he wins, both could see the 15-year-old take home roughly £4million.
He said if he wins he would like to buy a house for himself and his mother, who acts as his manager.
Benjy’s father died after battling cancer when he was just eight months old, leaving the family devastated and homeless – and they had been renting ever since.
Fortnite was developed by Epic Games and released in 2017.
It has three distinct modes – Fortnite: Save the World, Fortnite Battle Royale and Fortnite Creative.
It won the 2018 Webby Awards in the category of People’s Voice Award for the Best Multiplayer/Competitive Game – among other accolades.
It was nominated for PC Gamer’s Best Co-op Game in 2017 and IGN’s Best Spectator Game.
