A schoolboy gamer has his mother to thank for helping him earn more than £500,000 playing Fortnite.
Benjy Fish, 16, sometimes trains for 12 hours a day at home in Sunbury, Surrey, has a private tutor to help him keep up with education and goes to the gym to keep fit.
Mr Fish has made more than £500,000 since he started his career just after his 15th birthday, according to his mother Anne, who said he won £75,000 when he qualified for the Fortnite World Cup.
The mother-of-two has embraced the industry herself, as an e-sports mentor to young gamers, and wants to get rid of the stigma that many parents have with video games.
Benjy Fish (pictured), 16, sometimes trains for 12 hours a day at home in Sunbury, Surrey, has a private tutor to help him keep up with education and goes to the gym to keep fit
Mr Fish has made more than £500,000 since he started his career just after his 15th birthday, according to his mother Anne (pictured together), who said he won £75,000 when he qualified for the Fortnite World Cup
‘We began homeschooling so he could put the hours in to practice,’ Anne said. ‘A lot of the tournaments are in the evenings or overnight.
‘Tutors could come in and work around the tournament schedules. I think we need to see gamers like aspiring actors, who are often home schooled.’
Benjy – her youngest son – took up gaming after a knee condition ended his sporting ambitions.
And the teen – who uses the moniker benjyfishy – is now one of the most successful Fortnite players in the world, amassing 2.3million followers on Instagram and 1.3million on Twitter.
The mother-of-two (pictured with Benjy) has embraced the industry herself, as an e-sports mentor to young gamers, and wants to get rid of the stigma that many parents have
The kind-hearted son has said he is saving up to buy his mother a house with his winnings but they haven’t found the right one yet.
He said: ‘I would like to buy a house for my family.
‘We have always been renting since my dad passed away when I was eight months old so it would be nice to be able to help out.’
Fortnite is one of the most popular games in the world, with 250million users.
It involves 100 players being dropped on to an island where they have to find weapons, build structures and eliminate each other until one player triumphs.
Benjy, pictured as a child, took up Fortnite after his dreams of pursuing a sporting career were shattered when he injured his knee
The game is popular amongst footballers such as Harry Kane and Dele Alli, however Prince Harry has said it is draining the minds of youngsters.
What started as a hobby for Benjy, playing with his older brother Charles, has turned into a life-changing career.
He became a pro-gamer at the age of 15, when the age limit for professionals was lowered, and gaming organisations were quickly fighting to get Benjy’s signature for their side.
Between 14 and 19 is the prime playing age due to the speed of teens’ reactions, so Benjy is dedicating himself to gaming and is no longer going to school.
Another mother of a gaming star, Ruth Payne (left), says her son Ethan (right) – who goes by the gaming pseudonym Behzinga – was shy growing up, and struggled with public speaking.
Research from cybersecurity firm Kaspersky shows that a quarter of gamers around the world hide how much time they spend on consoles from their parents.
But Anne – who also has tens of thousands of followers on social media – believes that gaming offers teens so many routes into employment.
She said: ‘The whole stigma about children playing games is one of the main things I’m trying to address.
‘There are so many transferable skills children can learn. They understand leadership and team building.
Ethan, 25, now has 4.3 million subscribers on YouTube and 2.6 million Instagram followers. He often travels to glamorous places across the globe for his job. Pictured, with his mother
Ruth (right) said gaming helped her son (left) learn graphic design and coding, to speak publically and gained him a large friendship group
‘Only a small percentage make it as a pro gamer, as it’s similar to becoming a professional footballer or getting to the West End.
‘There is the whole infrastructure around e-sports, which provides opportunities to kids. You can go into management, streaming or become a coach – there are a lot of skills that can be learned which can help you in future careers.’
Another mother of a gaming star, Ruth Payne, says her son Ethan – who goes by the gaming pseudonym Behzinga – was shy growing up, and struggled with public speaking.
Ethan, 25, now has 4.3 million subscribers on YouTube and 2.6 million Instagram followers. He often travels to glamorous places across the globe for his job.
‘You get to meet people all around the world, which you never normally would,’ the 50-year-old explained. It’s improved his cognitive behaviour and his social skills by talking to all sorts of people outside of his school.
‘It’s given him all sorts of skills, which helped him learn graphic design and coding. He used to be scared of talking on the phone, and public speaking in general.
‘But once he got online, he made a huge friendship group which massively improved his confidence. Now videos he makes are being watched by millions of people.’