Austin teens crowned national champion 'Fortnite' gamers

Austin teens crowned 'Fortnite' champs

Three Austin teens are now national champion gamers after defeating teams from all over the country in the game "Fortnite."

AUSTIN, Texas - Three Austin teens are now national champion gamers after defeating 32 of the top ‘Fortnite’ teams from all over the country.

It wasn’t an easy path to first place for the team, but they overcame adversity and did it.

"I was like, we're winning this event," Austin Hydra team coach Daniel Hernandez said.

Hernandez was confident in his team heading into the XP League National Championship for ‘Fortnite’.

The team consisted of 13-year-old Jonas Campbell, or Pixel, 15-year-old Gabriel Johnson, or Magic, and 17-year-old Owen Mings, or Onay. The dream team played for hours individually and practiced together every weekend for about nine months leading up to the big stage.

"I think making sure that you all practice as a group and making sure you're all on the same page, I think that's how we got so good together," Mings said.

They were good enough to make it to the championship in Orlando.

The Austin trio placed fifth heading into the last day of the competition. The team got ready to start, but they had a technical issue.

"I'm like, oh, what happened? And then I see the screen frozen, so I'm like, no, please, please load in and then, unfortunately, he does crash," Hernandez said.

Campbell wasn’t able to play the first game.

"I'm thinking I just got to keep my head up and hope they do good," Campbell said.

With one person down, Hernandez said they were playing at a disadvantage, but the duo still did well.

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Then game two started and Campbell was kicked out again.

"At first it was really devastating. I was like, okay, I don't know if, like, at that moment, I was like, okay, I don't even know if I'm playing the last game with him either, so I was just thinking, like, okay, I really have to focus. I have to make sure I'm making the right calls, making smart decisions for both of us," Mings said.

Heading into the last game, the team changed their plan.

"I didn't want him to crash again because that could have been, like, win or lose the tournament," Johnson said.

They decided to drop into a different part of the game.

"I was pretty nervous going into the last game because I knew that everything was on the line," Mings said.

This time, Campbell was in the game and able to play.

"I was happy I was able to play, and I knew that we had to get a lot of eliminations in order to win that game," Campbell said.

"We wanted to just try to be as aggressive as possible," Johnson said.

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They were. They ended with 25 eliminations.

"That's a pretty big deal. That's like killing one third of the entire lobby there," Johnson said.

It was enough points to take home the win.

"I was just shocked that we won," Campbell said.

"I was just in shock. It was awesome," Johnson said.

"I was proud of my team for being able to make it through the adversity and came out on top," Mings said.

The teens said they plan to play ‘Fortnite’ for a long time. Johnson and Campbell said they are hoping to go pro and Mings wants to continue creating content and playing competitively.

The team is currently competing in the summer split of the XP League and is hoping to qualify to defend their national title next year.

The Austin Hydra team is recruiting players. For more information, click here.