Guild Esports extends Fortnite players’ contracts

Guild Esports PLC (LSE: GILD), a global teams organisation and lifestyle brand, is pleased to announce it has extended the contracts of professional Fortnite players Anas El-Abd (“Anas”) and Henrik McLean (“Hen”) in a one-year deal, with an option to extend for another year.

Anas, from Denmark, signed with the Company in January 2021 and since then has performed at a consistently high level for Guild. In December 2022, Anas won US$1 million by winning global Fortnite competition “MrBeast’s Extreme Survival Challenge” and won the ‘zero-build’ event at the Gamers8 Fortnite LAN in Saudi Arabia, splitting the $250,000 prize with his teammate.

Hen, a British-Lithuanian professional player, signed with the Company in December 2020. Since then, Hen has achieved international competitive success, notably winning the Fortnite Champion Series (FNCS) EU 3 times (March 2021, November 2021 and March 2022), contributing to Guild’s major trophy tally. Both Anas and Hen are widely regarded as being among the best Fortnite players in the world.

Anas has a combined social media following of more than 450,000 across his channels, comprising 218,000 followers on Twitter, 70,600 YouTube subscribers, 99,900 followers on Twitch, 62,900 on Instagram and 25,000 followers on TikTok. Hen has a combined social following of more than 600,000 across his channels, including 262,200 followers on Twitter, 66,800 on YouTube, 224,000 followers on Twitch, 50,600 followers on Instagram and 6,800 on TikTok.

Hen and Anas compete together regularly, recently achieving third place in the Elite Cup Weekly Finals (Europe) in January 2023. Anas and Hen will compete under the Guild banner in all upcoming European and international Fortnite tournaments, including the Fortnite Champions Series (FNCS), which returns for 2023 with a new structure, a US$10,000,000 total prize pool, and a Global Championship in-person event taking place in Copenhagen in late 2023. A small proportion of their winnings will continue to go to Guild, in line with contractual agreements made between Guild and its pro-players.

Jasmine Skee, CEO of Guild Esports, commented: “Guild continues to attract the best players in the world, and we are thrilled that Anas and Hen have decided to extend their contracts with us. We are committed to supporting player development and with the Fortnite professional scene looking exceptionally strong for 2023 with a $10 million total prize pool and an international in-person event later in the year for FNCS, this is a major focus for Guild. We are looking forward to continuing our partnership with these two world-class players, and I will be cheering them on as we look to expand our trophy collection this year.”