Fortnite: Teenage World Cup Solos Champion Is Swatted During Live Stream

After his recent win at the Fortnite World Cup Solos Championship, 16-year-old Kyle "Bugha" Giersdorf has had a lot of attention focused on him - not all of it positive. During a recent Fortnite: Battle Royale session that the young member of the Sentinels esports team was livestreaming, he was interrupted after being "swatted," as armed police showed up at his home apparently due to a false report.

The pro player was streaming Fortnite when the police arrived in the middle of a game. In footage of the incident, Bugha is interrupted by his father telling him there are armed police at the door, to which he asks, "I got swatted?" This forced the teenager to leave for around 10 minutes before he returns to tell his friends and fellow pros--Ghost Gaming's Timothy "Bizzle" Miller and FaZe Clan's Danny "Dubs" Walsh--what happened. "They come in with guns, bro," he explains. "They literally pulled up, holy s***. That's scary."

"Swatting" is a form of criminal harassment whereby a false report is filed with the police in the hopes of dispatching armed officers to a person's address. The dangerous hoax has gained unfortunate popularity within the gaming community, most notably on streaming platforms where victims like Bugha are targeted.

Fortunately, the World Cup Winner avoided anything serious happening, thanks in some part to one of the attending officers recognising Bugha due to living in the same neighbourhood.

Others haven't been quite so lucky. A 2017 dispute over Call of Duty led to a "swatting" incident in which a 28-year-old man was shot and killed by police. The man who made the false call was later sentenced to 20 years in prison.