Fortnite charity tournament gathers all the best players for a stunning prize of 3mill $

Fifty well-known Fortnite players – young adults who play every night for countless fans on YouTube and Twitch – were teamed up with 50 celebrities from the worlds of wrestling, television and music, with each pair taking part in an all-or-nothing match of the world’s most popular video game. In Fortnite’s famed Battle Royale mode, 100 players land on a giant island and must fight until only one player – or team – is left standing. Usually the prize is simply kudos, but here there was a $3m (£2.2m) pot to aim for, the money to go to charities chosen by the top-finishing duos.

The competition took place on a vast stage at one end of the Banc of California Stadium. Epic invited about 15,000 fans to attend and they duly queued outside for hours, rewarded for their enthusiasm with free pizza, burgers and hot dogs at concession stands themed to look like in the game’s fictitious franchises. There was even a real-life battle bus – the flying vehicle that delivers characters to the island – hung from a crane in the parking lot.

All the game’s most famous players took part including Tyler “Ninja” Blevins, the blue-haired streamer with more than 8 million online followers and Fortnite’s superstar player. He was matched with the EDM star Marshmello, a DJ and producer who wore his signature white marshmallow-shaped helmet throughout the competition. Other hot favourites were Kinstar, who was paired with the UFC fighter Sean O’Malley, and Britain’s Ali-A, who was matched with the Fall Out Boy bassist, Pete Wentz.

The final four players: Kitty Plays, CouRage, Ninja and the last surviving celeb, Marshmello, found themselves trapped along a vast cliff overlooking the island’s Shifty Shafts area. They built neighbouring towers and traded gunfire until finally Ninja and Marshmello, atop the tallest tower of all, took out CouRage to claim victory. And Marshmello did it all without removing his mask.

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