Fortnite is very different from real life

Blaž Lešnik is the only Slovenian who has managed to qualify for the biggest Fortnite video game tournament.

About 40 million players from around the world participated online in the qualifications for the final tournament.

Without the hard work of playing video games, there is no success, says the sixteen-year-old high school student, who plays for Team Atlantis and is known as K1nzell.

One hundred made it to the finals at the New York Tennis Stadium, including Blaž, who finished 30th. He won a prize of €45,000.

How did the tournament go?

We travelled to New York about a week before the tournament. We then trained there most of the time to get used to playing in a different environment.

On Sunday, we went to the stadium about four hours before the start of the competition. At about one in the afternoon, the organisers arranged for a concert by DJ Marshmello.

Immediately after this finished the tournament began.

How did the preparations for the competition go?

I’ve been playing Fortnite for about two years now, so they were happening all that time.

Every day I played for many hours, which eventually paid off.

Fortnite is a game that combines fighting, exploring and building a virtual world. What do you particularly like about the game?

Fortnite is a unique video game. It immediately caught my attention as it was the only one with building.

In what sense?

I like how each individual player or their way of playing can be different from the others.

You can be very creative in Fortnite, and this can make you better than most.

There is also quite a bit of violence in the game. How do you understand that?

I do not view this as violence, as the game is very different from real life.

How much time a day do you dedicate to Fortnite?

Many hours to stay at such a high level, which is also very difficult.

What else do you do in your spare time?

A lot of the time I have school, so I spend most of my free time playing or coaching Fortnite.

What else do you want to achieve?

In the future, when I play I want to focus on video recording and live streaming on Twitch or YouTube.

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The original version of this article was published on August 2nd.

English translation courtesy of JL Flanner, Total Slovenia News, an English language website with news from and about Slovenia.