If you want to understand what happened last weekend in the Arthur Ashe Stadium of New York City should know that in a few weeks tennis will be played again in this arena. The US Open tennis tournament will feature people competing for a total of $57.24 million in prize money whose first names are world-renowned brands: Serena, Simona, Roger, Rafa. They are artists, virtuosos of this sport, and even if they ultimately only push a ball over a net, hardly anyone would think of questioning these achievements and also the social relevance of tennis.

So this weekend there was another sporting competition at the Flushing Meadows facility, with a total prize purse of $40 million at stake, and it’s no exaggeration to say that the nicknames of the best players are well-known brands around the world: Tfue, Myth, Bizzle, Mongraal. Held the first world championship in the computer game Fortnite, the doubles were won by 17-year-old David Wang (Austria, nickname: Aqua) and the one year younger Emil Bergquist Pedersen (Norway, Nyhrox) $1.5 million each, in singles the American teenager Giersdorf, whose nickname was Bugha is now a world-renowned brand.

Fortnite is a computer game, in the “Battle Royale” version 100 players compete against each other on a post-apocalyptic island, they have to search for weapons and collect resources there – and shoot each other, the last survivor wins the round. It has become a pop cultural phenomenon in the past two years: Sports professionals cheer goals and victories with dances from the game, celebrities dress up as characters, a victory (“Victory Royale”) is a status symbol similarly recognized in the schoolyard as the complete Paninialbum used to be.

So now Fortnite also a sport, more than 40 million players worldwide have tried to qualify for the finals in New York in online tournaments over the past ten weeks. There were points for placement and bonuses for eliminated opponents, anyone with a computer, installed game and internet connection was allowed to try, and those who made it to the Arthur Ashe Stadium received an entry bonus of 50,000 dollars. The prize money for participation in the first round at the US Open: 58,000 dollars.

The average age at the Fortnite final round: 16 years.

Now, you can consider all of this to be a downright terrible development and a harbinger of the end of the West – or an evolution of sports in light of technological development. In any case, virtual sports are not the short-lived phenomenon they were dismissed as ten years ago. There are now professional leagues and scholarships at elite U.S. universities, the head of the organization of the 2024 Olympics in Paris, Tony Estanguet, has tried (unsuccessfully) to include video games in the program, and players will compete for medals at the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

Those who followed this world championship might have noticed that it is by no means just a matter of picking up weapons and then picking off other players. There are different playing styles and strategies, just as in tennis there is the defensive artist Novak Djokovic and the powerful Rafael Nadal. The eventual winner Giersdorf, for example, acted extremely aggressively during the first of six rounds of play, after which he chose a more deliberate style of play, cleverly avoiding his opponents’ traps and surprisingly counterattacking.

What’s happening right now is perhaps best explained by 13-year-old Lion Krause. The teenager from Gütersloh (nickname: Lyght) had also qualified, and he now says much the same thing Roger Federer once said about tennis: “My goal has always been to never have to go to work normally. Going to the office every day, for eight hours, for years, I don’t think that’s so good.” Federer at the 2018 US Open: “My father told me to take care of school – but I knew I didn’t want a normal job, I wanted to be a professional athlete.” Krause finished in 80th place and received another $50,000.

The average age of the participants in the World Cup finals in New York was 16, so it was fitting that a 16-year-old teenager ended up winning. So Giersdorf stood in the middle of the biggest tennis arena in the world, the famous DJ (and Fortnite-player) Marshmello was one of the first well-wishers, then came his parents and siblings. In a shower of confetti, Giersdorf hugged his family and thanked them for their support over the years – just what professional athletes say when they have won a major event.