Bugha enters free agency; Sentinels leaves Fortnite
World champion Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf parted ways with Sentinels after it announced its exit from the Fortnite competitive scene.
Bugha made headlines around the world when he won the Fortnite World Cup in 2019 at such a young age of 16.
In the grandest stage of competitive Fortnite, Bugha took home $3 million for winning the world championship and had mainstream media appearances.
“At the time early on in Fortnite, getting signed into an organization was so good back then,” Bugha said.
“When I finally realized that I had an offer and was able to get signed I was pretty emotional because it kind of showed that it was paying off and that I am actually getting somewhere to do what I was doing.”
Unfortunately for Bugha, the Fortnite professional scene has been stagnant ever since.
Its developer, Epic Games, has been repeatedly criticized for its lack of vision in creating a healthy Esports environment for the massively played battle royale title.
In fact, ever since the World Cup in 2019, there has not been another huge Fortnite tournament while the rest of the Esports world found ways and even prospered at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
With this, Sentinels decided to say goodbye.
“As our organization maps out the future, our strategy is to focus on games that provide the opportunity to activate for our sponsors or offer team branded in-game content,” Sentinels chief executive officer Rob Moore said.
“Fortnite has not offered either of those. I am announcing today we will no longer be competing in Fortnite.”
“We will therefore not be resigning Bugha, Aspect (Nick McGuire), and Zyfa (Brian Wielgolaski). We thank our players, especially Kyle “Bugha” Giersdorf who brought home the Sentinels (its) first major championship with his win in the 2019 World Cup.