This past weekend marked one of the biggest e-sports tournaments ever: the Fortnite World Cup. E-sports are video games with all the trappings of professional sports, including big money. Fortnite is a shooting game played in the battle royale style: The last one standing is the winner. The Fortnite World Cup gathered the best players from around the world. The tournament sold out Arthur Ashe Stadium in New York. Thirty million dollars in prize money was at stake. WGBH News has been following a local Fortnite competitor, 16-year-old Jordan Herzog of Sudbury, who with his partner placed 17th out of 50. Herzog spoke with WGBH News' Arun Rath while he was on his way home from the tournament. He said he was tired, but happy with how he did. This transcript below has been edited for clarity.

Jordan Herzog: I'm feeling really good about [placing 17th]. I obviously would have liked to get top 10 to get into the bigger money, but we definitely did really well, and we'll just show up next time for sure.

Arun Rath: You wanted to get the bigger money, but you still did pretty good for that, right? How much did you guys win?

Herzog: Oh yeah, absolutely, $100,000 split between us is definitely not anything to be upset about.

Rath: Can you describe the scene a little bit for us? Keep in mind that most of our audience has never been to an e-sports tournament.

Herzog: It was in a pretty big stadium. There were tons and tons of people in the stands, all the seats were basically filled up. The players are basically on a circular stage of two levels, and it was really, really cool. We had the best computers, pretty good servers. It was pretty well done.

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Rath: You’ve played in tournaments before, but how did the Fortnite World Cup compare? Did it feel different?

Herzog: The tournaments that I’ve played in don’t even come close to the amount of eyes watching the tournament — just the size and scale. This is the biggest in terms of prize pool, as well as just physically, a huge tournament.

Rath: You're playing with your partner, who goes by the online name “Spades.” How did that work out for the two of you?

Herzog: We have been playing since January, so we know each other pretty well, we know how we play, and we're very comfortable with each other, and I know we'll be able to qualify for the next event and do even better next time.

Rath: In addition to the tournament, the other thing I wanted to talk to you about is that since the last time you and I spoke, some weeks ago, I hear you signed with a professional team. Could you tell us the team and also explain for people a little bit what it means to join a pro club?

Herzog: I joined Lazarus, which is a professional organization in many different games, including Fortnite. And basically what it means for me is me is to be representing them in different tournaments and stuff. And also, I get a monthly salary. And after this last weekend, Lazarus became the number one organization in terms of earnings, because we just earned as a group of people, as the six players in the World Cup, we earned $3.4 or $3.5 million.

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Rath: You were doing professional gaming before, but I mean at this point, you're 16 years old and you’re about as full on a pro as you can get, right?

Herzog: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm doing this at such a young age, there are people even younger [who are doing it], but I'm definitely happy that I'm starting to get into this pretty early on.

Rath: So it sounds like you're just going to get busier with the gaming from here.

Herzog: Yeah, it's only going to get busier and busier, which I am definitely not upset about. This is what I love doing, so I'm definitely happy.