North American Fortnite player Joshua ‘Cold’ Butler has won Man City Esports’ first FNCS title.
The 16-year-old finished in first place in the Fortnite Championship Series Major 1: North America Grand Finals on the weekend, with Canadian teammate Abdullah ‘Acorn’ Akhras of Dignitas.
The two players share the top prize of $140,000 and qualify for the FNCS Global Championship 2024, which will take place in September and promises a $2m pool.
The pair played extremely well in the Major 1, winning convincingly with a victory royale to close out the game.
It’s the second FNCS win for Cold following his first major win in October 2023.
Cold tweeted about the achievement below:
Cold only recently signed to Man City Esports, along with teammate Iwo ‘Setty’ Zając, as the club also extended the contracts of Trip and Threats.
It’s a great start to the year for Man City, the English Premier League football club that also has esports operations, much like fellow club Wolves.
“Everyone at Manchester City would like to congratulate Cold and Acorn on their achievement and wish them the best of luck for the rest of the year,” Man City Esports said in a post on their website.
Acorn said on broadcast after the win: “I put as much time as I can into this and always want to be the best, I always want to be better and I’m never satisfied.
“I think we’ll win Globals, four for four finals, it’s never been done before, we’re fully primed.
“He’s just the best, he’s always listening to me and never questions a play. He’s on me all the time and here’s there when I need him, it’s perfect.”
You can see a video of what happened here:
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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.
