Esports player Ninja fails to qualify for Fortnite World Cup – CNET

Doritos Bowl At TwitchCon 2018

Tyler “Ninja” Blevins plays Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 during the Doritos Bowl 2018 at TwitchCon 2018 in San Jose, California.


Robert Reiners / Getty Images

The world’s most recognizable Fortnite player won’t be participating in the biggest video game tournament of all time. Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, who has raked in millions of dollars playing the game, failed to qualify for next month’s Fortnite World Cup Finals.

Ninja was eliminated from the solo competition two weeks ago, and on Friday he missed the cut for the duos competition. Along with partner Malachi “Reverse2k” Greine, finished with 64 points, 25 shy of what they needed to compete in the World Cup Finals.

Ninja, who didn’t stream his three hours of game play, took to Twitter on Friday to inform his 4 million followers that he won’t be competing in the tournament but will still be in attendance.

Fortnite, one of the biggest free-to-play games on consoles ever, took 2018 by storm. The game became a cultural phenomenon, and raked in $3 billion for developer Epic Games across all platforms last year. 

The Fortnite World Cup Finals, which has a $30 million prize pool, take place on July 26-28 in New York City at the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Tickets to the event are sold out, meaning the only way to watch is online.

In September, Blevins became the first esports player to land on the cover of ESPN’s magazine. Ninja has told CNN that he made nearly $10 million last year playing Fortnite: Battle Royale.

source: cnet.com