Top gamer has a chance of making millions as he sets out for NewYork

A 20-year-old Fortnite fanatic will today jet off on a life-changing trip to New York – with the chance of coming back a multi-millionaire. Greenhills gamer Stuart Smith – game name ‘code 0000’ – has won a place in Fortnite’s ‘Creative World Cup’ which promises the winner a piece of a $3 million prize pool. The former four-times world record holder for popular Sony game, Crash Bandicoot, qualified for the event by placing in the top two in the world for completing a speedrunning map devised by Fortnite creators Epic Games. Stuart, who plays the cult game up to 10 hours a day, narrowly missed out on the top spot to Australian gamer ‘4turtle’, who beat him by all of five seconds. But, on Friday, the speedrunning supremos will join forces in the US where they will team up for the thrilling threeday event at Epic Games’ headquarters in the Big Apple. And even if they’re not successful, Stuart won’t come home empty-handed, with each qualified player taking home $5000. Ex-Duncanrig pupil Stuart, who is studying to be an accountant, told the News: “Fortnite announced the $3 millon Creative World Cup and I knew that I just had to compete in it.

“The prize pool is split between all players so I am expecting to walk away with a substantial amount of money regardless of the outcome, which would be incredible.

“The details of what we have to do in New York are still unknown as we have been given little information, but I assume it will be similar deathrunning/ speedrunning maps to the one that we played in the qualifiers.

“I’ve never been to the States before so I am super excited to go.”

The all-expenses-paid trip of a lifetime will also be an extra-special milestone in Stuart’s life. As a child he was diagnosed with scoliosis which ruled out any kind of future in competitive sport. It was then his passion for gaming was born and today his YouTube channel ‘stuart 0000,’ filmed from his bedroom in Broom Crescent, boasts over 2000 subscribers,

He said: “I got into gaming after my scoliosis diagnosis at eight-years-old.

“Over the course of my life I have had 15 operations and permanently have a metal rod in my spine so I knew that I was never going to be an athlete of any sort.

“I am physically well and able to do things like go to the gym, but I have always been more of a gamer than anything else.”

Stuart added: “I enjoy Fortnite because it is such a unique game and it has speedrunning involved which I love.

“I have been a speedrunner for around six years. I had started to drift away from Crash Bandicoot and started to look for other games to enjoy when my friends introduced me to Fortnite. Then Fortnite added a mode called ‘Creative’ where people could build courses and maps for people to complete in the fastest time possible and this was just perfect for me as I had years of experience of speedrunning platformer games.

“I also play other games such as Rocket League and Clone Hero just for fun.”

Aside from competing in the Creative World Cup, Stuart can’t wait to soak up the sights of the city that never sleeps and is already dreaming of what he will splash the cash on if he scoops the $3 million prize pot.

“I’m looking forward to sightseeing, especially the Empire State Building, but mostly I am just excited to get away for a while and enjoy a holiday.

“I am being put up in the Hyatt Grand Central and from looking online it is absolutely amazing.

“If I win the money I will mostly save it up and try to use it wisely to have the best future for myself, but I might consider buying some nice things like a car or putting down a deposit for my own place.

“New York will be a great experience.”