Fortnite‘s recent Fortnite World Cup winner Kyle “Bugha” Gieserdof was met with an unwelcome surprise. During a live Twitch stream while in the middle of a game, the teen was swatted. “Swatting” is a horrible prank in which a caller will lie to police about a person saying they are for example a bomber or holding someone hostage. It can have extremely deadly consequences as we previously reported in the case of Andrew Finch. Another player was playing a game of Call of Duty when his opponent, the now-convicted Tyler Barriss, swatted him. However, the wrong home was targeted, they went to totally unrelated Finch’s home instead, and Finch was shot by police and ultimately died.
It ended without incident
Thankfully this wasn’t the case with Bugha. Midway through the stream, you can hear him telling his dad, “Dad, I actually can’t,” when his father interrupts him. Then surprisingly he exclaims, “I got swatted?” He then leaves in the middle of the match, leaving his teammates confused and surprised along with the Twitch audience. When he returns he jokes about the situation and explains that luckily the officer who came to his door knew about him and his Fortnite fame. It could have ended on a much more horrible note. He then took to Twitter to further express his feelings about the whole thing, albeit briefly.
kinda wild
— Bugha (@bugha) August 11, 2019
Police are now aware of Bugha and his online fame, so it’s unlikely they will come back to visit if Bugha is swatted again. That is sadly the price of fame in the online gaming community; pranksters get a rise from swatting someone live in front of an audience. Cases of this continue to rise, and it’s a horrible waste of police resources and time. Let this continue to be a lesson to would-be swatters — just don’t do it.
