RIYADH — Charity esports event Gamers Without Borders brought down the curtain on three days of thrilling Fortnite action on Thursday night with a victory for Germany’s Team Ovation — but more importantly, another massive donation to organizations leading the global fight against COVID-19.
Running Tuesday through Thursday, GWB’s six-match-a-day Fortnite tournament hosted 50 of the best duo teams from around the world, 40 of which logged-in from across Europe and another ten from the Middle East & North Africa to the SAFEIS organized series.
Amongst them were Premier League football stars Dele Alli and Kyle Walker-Peters, who threw their weight behind the seven-week long $10million coronavirus fundraiser, which has to date attracted more than 100,000 players to its elite and amateur level tournaments.
Days one and two of the tournament saw a total $1million — $500,000 per day — handed from GWB’s prize fund over to charities including UNICEF, the International Medical Corps (IMC), Gavi, The Vaccine Alliance, Direct Relief and the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) by its participating teams.
Leading the charge on that was the Russian pairing of Team Virtus.pro’s Kiryache32 and 15-year-old Gambit Esposrts star letw1k3, who quite remarkably came out on top both Tuesday and Wednesday to donate $150,000 each day to their chosen charities.
However, Thursday’s series finale saw the final match winnings double, with all 50 participating teams battling it out for shares of anywhere between US$2,000 and a huge $300,000 from the charity fund.
At the top end of that came eventual tournament winners Zeston and Scout from Ovation Esports. The German duo amassed a total 405 points, comprised of 275 place points and 130 for eliminations, seeing off second placed pair CPHF Deqzy and VHV Shadow by only four points.
That victory would perhaps have been even hard to swallow for third placed Team Singularity duo Trippern and Th0masHD of Denmark, who amassed 400 points but won two of the series’ six matches — one battle royale more than Ovation.
After winning, the German pair chose to give their winning share to UNICEF, as did Team Singularity with their third-place $100,000. CPHF Deqzy and VHV Shadow donated their $200,000 runners-up winnings to Gavi. — SG
