Fortnite world cup: Jaden Ashman’s mum worried about how much he played

A British teen who came second at the Fortnite world cup over the weekend has told Sky News that there was “tension” between him and his mum before the tournament over how much time he spent playing the game.

Jaden Ashman will split the £1.5m prize with his teammate after they came runners-up in the video gaming tournament.

Speaking to Sky News, Jaden said his mum thought he was “wasting his time” ahead of the tournament, and was worried that he was just sat in his room playing video games.

“This has proved to her that I can make a living out of my gaming,” he said.

“I’m really focused on my gaming, I’m definitely going to try and make a career out of it through streaming and content creation – I hopefully can make a decent living out of it.”

The tournament was held in New York’s Arthur Ashe stadium, which is usually home to the finals of the US Open tennis tournament, and was filled with thousands of gaming fans.

Jaden said the crowd, and the millions watching at home, did not faze him, saying he coped with the pressure “really well”.

“The atmosphere in the stadium, if you made a good play, the crowd cheered you and you could hear it through your headphones… the crowd was so loud,” he said.

“It really put a little bit more pressure on me to perform… but my partner helped me get through it… and I did really well to hold my nerve.”

Jaden feels confident that he can make it back to the tournament next year, and said he plans to use the money to help out his family.

However, he nearly did not make it to this year’s tournament, after a mistake on his ESTA travel form meant a dash to the US embassy to rectify the issue.

There was a 30-day wait to be issued with the right paperwork, but luckily, his mum got a last minute appointment at the embassy, only for his dog to then tear up his birth certificate which he needed to take with him.

“We came downstairs – and its just in pieces all over the floor because my dog has just munched it all the way up – I was like what the hell is going on?” he told Sky News.

Fortnite is a free-to-play game where you win by being the last person standing on a island packed with guns and resources.

British gaming and Youtube star DanTDM told Sky News that there has been no game like it in recent history that has become as popular as quickly as Fortnite.

He said: “It sustained that growth.

“The prize money – they can put up these masses of money that people have invested in to the game and give back to their players.”

Talking about the importance of the world cup at the weekend he said: “Anyone could take part – 40 million people tried to get to the finals and the biggest piece of publicity for the event was the prize money – it was the biggest amount of money that someone could win by themselves from esports.

“There’s probably not that many that are good are Fortnite, but there’s that many that play… because anyone, no matter what your skill level was, you could try to make your way through the tournament and be able to play in New York City.”

(c) Sky News 2019: Fortnite world cup: Jaden Ashman’s mum worried about how much he played