Jaden Ashman participated in the Fortnite World Cup 2019 and achieved 2nd place. He won a prize of over one million euros and is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the “youngest e-sports millionaire from a single tournament.”
E-sports tournaments sometimes offer massive sums as prize money and have the potential to turn the winner’s life upside down. This happened a few years ago to a 15-year-old who suddenly became a millionaire.
Who is the young e-sports millionaire? The e-sports millionaire is the Brit Jaden Ashman. He is also known in the gaming community as “Wolfiez.”
What world record does Jaden Ashman hold? At the time he won the million, Jaden was 15 years and 229 days old. This earned him the title “Youngest esports millionaire from a single tournament” in the Guinness Book of Records.
How did the boy come to the millions? Jaden participated in the Fortnite World Cup 2019 and together with his teammate Dave “Rojo” Jong, he achieved second place in the final. The prize money for both was a total of 2.25 million dollars (about 2.21 million euros).
Here you can see a video of the summer event in Fortnite:
Jaden Ashman’s journey to millionaire
How did Ashman’s e-sports career begin? In his childhood, the boy watched his uncle play Gears of War and enjoyed distracting him from the game. Jaden was also inspired by his uncle:
“I started playing with my uncle. He played with a controller and was really good at it, so I looked up to him, and it was the first thing I picked up.” (via guinnessworldrecords.com)
Jaden also learned from his uncle how to hold the controller and how to game with it. At the age of 6, Jaden owned an Xbox and played different games.
Here you can see a clip from a BBC interview with Jaden:
How did Jaden Ashman come to Fortnite? Jaden Ashman had been playing Fortnite since its release and spent up to 8 hours a day in his room training.
Initially, his mother was against him playing Fortnite. Jaden said: “My mom and I clashed often, but in the end, we made it work. I never did my homework on time. Sometimes I got a little obsessive with my games, but we started setting boundaries.” (via guinnessworldrecords.com).
How did Jaden Ashman come to the Fortnite World Cup? Besides Ashman, around 40 million players tried to qualify for the Fortnite World Cup. For 10 weeks, they competed online for a spot.
Indeed, Jaden was one of the candidates who were invited to the first Fortnite World Cup 2019. It took place from July 26 to 29 at the Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York City.
The event itself is also a record holder: it offered the largest prize pool in e-sports tournaments in the solo player category with 3 million dollars (about 2.9 million euros).
At this event, Jaden won approximately 2.21 million euros as the second-place winner, which he shared with his teammate.
What did Jaden do with the money? About half of the money the boy wanted to save. He also promised his mother to buy her a house and a car and kept his word.
He said in a BBC interview: “It feels really good to be able to buy the house and keep my word to my mom.” (via YouTube).
Is Jaden still active in e-sports? Since May 1, 2020, Jaden Ashman has played Fortnite as an e-sports athlete for Excel Esports. On January 18, 2023, Wolfiez announced on Twitter that he joined the e-sports organization TT9.
What do you think about the youngest e-sports millionaire from a single tournament? Feel free to let us know in the comments.
If you are interested in Fortnite, you can learn more about the 50 Marvel skins in Fortnite.
