Sudbury Teen Will Compete For $5.5M Prize In Fortnite Championship
SUDBURY (CBS) - First thing in the morning and last thing before bed, you will most likely find 16-year-old, Jordan Herzog, of Sudbury on his computer with his headphones on and laser focused. "I've known this all my life. I used to play sports but that kind of fell through because I didn't really enjoy it as much and I realized how much I enjoyed video games," Jordan said.
He's been playing video games since he was three years old. With quick wrists and fast fingers he's now an ESports professional athlete. The gaming world knows him as Crimz.
His favorite is the popular game Fortnite.
"Fortnite is a 100 player battle royale, people drop into the arena, people try to survive, be the last team standing," Jordan said.
He plays it all day long, which is why he's now one of the best in the world beating other pros and makes big money doing it.
"I play ten hours a day of Fortnite. This year I'll be making around $100-150k at the minimum," he said.
Now the Sudbury native is heading to the Fortnite World Championship competing for a $30 million dollar prize pool. "First place gets $5.5 million. So me and my teammate are preparing every single day to get ready for that championship," Jordan said.
His father, who's also in the gaming industry, recognized his talent, so he removed him from Lincoln-Sudbury High School and enrolled him in online courses. Now he can spend more time practicing in his $20,000 game room. "Gaming chairs, the table alone was $1,000 table that goes up and down. So he needs this precise height of the table so his wrist move a certain way," David Herzog said.
Crimz spends endless amounts of hours in his gaming room. It appears to be paying off. His father says last month he made $85,000 just from playing Fortnite in his room. Now he's getting ready for the championship.
"It's going to be 50 duos in one match. Best of the best around the world. It's going to be really tough, but if we do it, we are going to make it big," Jordan said.