Some Parents Paying Big Money For Fortnite Coaches To Tutor Kids

PALO ALTO (KPIX 5) – While it is not out of the ordinary for parents to cover the costs of music lessons or sports training like tennis lessons, some are taking the unusual step of paying for private video-game instruction.

Ori Eiran loves playing the online video game Fortnite, But some of his friends are taking it to the next level.

"There's Fortnite coaches; they guarantee a win or to build on your skills or your aim," said Eiran.

One of his friends even has the support of his parents. They hired a Fortnite tutor for him.

"They thought he was good enough to play eSports and join a competitive team and win money and so they decided to build on his strengths. And he really wanted it and was pushing for it for a really long time," said Eiran

And it is not just Eiran's friend.

Parents around the world are hiring Fortnite coaches, paying them as much as $35 an hour to help make their kid the next big eSports star.

Julian Torres is an instructor at iD Tech Camps held on the Stanford campus.

"I introduced myself as a Fortnite God! I say, 'I only drop tilted,' which is the section of the map in Fortnite," said Torres.

He not only shows students how to win at Fortnite, but he also teaches them how to build a battle royale style game and program levels inspired by Fortnite.

ID Tech Camps are the only official Fortnite camp, partnering with Fortnite's video game makers Epic Games.

"We show them Fortnite, we play with them. And, in general, kids have a blast with it because it's such fun game," explained Torres. "But they take that and we say, 'All right, now you can make something like this too.'"

ID tech Camps is a summer computer camp for students from ages 7 to 18. The goal is to create a positive experience in technology and to hopefully inspire the next gamers and tech leaders of the future.