Round Rock teen defends his title at the 2024 Fortnite Global Championship

ROUND ROCK (KXAN) -- Round Rock teen will defend his 2023 championship at this year's Fortnite Battle Royale Global Championship in Fort Worth.

Cooper Smith, a 17-year-old Round Rock native, and his gaming partner are finalists for the 2024 Fortnite Battle Royale Global Championship (FNCS). Smith and his partner will be heading to Fort Worth this Sept. 7-8 to defend their 2023 title.

Cooper will sit down with our KXAN Live Anchor Esmeralda Zamora Thursday, Aug. 28 at 2 p.m. on our KXAN Live stream platform and Facebook.

2024 Fortnite Battle Royale Global Championship

The 2024 championship will take place on Sep. 7-8 at the Fort Worth Dickies arena. The competition will feature 50 of the world's best competitive "duo" teams.

Over 35 countries will be represented, this year each team will be competing for a $2,002,000 grand prize. Cooper will be defending his title at this event in front of a Texas home crowd.

Smith's gaming history

Smith has been playing Fortnite Battle Royale since 2021. He has earned over $600,000 throughout his Fortnite career from a total of 36 tournaments. Smith is ranked 55th in the United Sates and 376th in the world.

Smith has over 600,000 followers on Twitch, a streaming platform where he streams himself playing Fortnite for his fans to watch and learn from him. At the 2023 Fortnite Championship in Denmark, Cooper split the $1 million prize with his partner.

What is Fortnite?

According to ESports, Fortnite is an online video game developed by EPIC Games. It was first released in 2017 and has over 500 million registered players. The game has quickly gained popularity among players 34 years of age and under.

The game's "Battle Royale" concept features a map with 100 online players all fighting for that "Victory Royale" title, according to an XBOX game description. The game collaborates with several musical artists, movies, sport leagues and much more. The latest collaboration featured in the games season 5 festival is with Latin American Musical Artist Karol G.

You can follow Smith on X, Twitch and YouTube to keep up with his gaming career. You can also learn more about Fortnite here.