Photo credit: Mark Roe / Red Bull Content Pool
Fortnite player Jaden ‘Wolfiez’ Ashman has become the UK’s latest esports star to earn coveted Red Bull athlete status.
The young prodigy, who plays for UK organisation Excel Esports, livestreamed on the Wolfiez Twitch channel directly from the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in London this evening to make the announcement.
The 18-year-old, who is already one of the UK’s highest earning esports players, took the world of competitive Fortnite by storm when Wolfiez finished second in the 2019 Fortnite World Cup and became one of the most successful UK esports players overnight aged just 16.
Since then, he’s cemented himself as one of the biggest success stories in Fortnite esports.
Wolfiez tweeted the following about joining Red Bull:
Wolfiez was also joined on stream by fellow Fortnite player, Hen, who took first place in the FNCS EU final with Guild the other day.
Wolfiez joins an array of top sporting talent that represent and work with the brand, including footballing stars Trent Alexander-Arnold, Neymar Jr and F1 World Champion Max Verstappen. UK Call of Duty streamer Jukeyz also became a Red Bull athlete this time last year.
As part of the Red Bull brand, Wolfiez will get access to the support network that has helped athletes ‘level up their career, break records and make the history books’.
In a press release, Red Bull said the year ahead is set to be a landmark one for Fortnite – one of the most popular video games in the world – as well as UK esports, with rumours of the anticipated Fortnite World Cup revival alongside the recent news of the esports pilot at this summer’s Commonwealth Games.
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
