8 hours ago
Midlothian man quit school after making £10k a month managing Fortnite players from bedroom
A young Midlothian man quit school after earning £10,000 a month managing some of the world's biggest online gamers from his bedroom.
Ross McLaren, 22, was born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy which left him wheelchair bound. He dreamed of becoming a professional Fortnite player but instead built a six-figure business at the age of 17 while living at home with his parents, Lesley and Craig.
Now Ross manages a team of ten and oversees the daily operations of some of the biggest names in online gaming including megastar Fortnite players Clix and Sentinel, reports The Daily Record.
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He told the Record: "I really wanted to be a pro-Fortnite player but I realised I wasn't good enough.
"I got into video editing for professional Fornite players and started working with small gaming streamers for free when I was in school.
"By summer 2021 I was making £10,000 per month and I told my parents I didn't want to sit my Advanced Highers.
"They had their doubts and asked me to go back to school - but I quit after one day."
Ross explained how his disability enabled him to get into the gaming world and hone his craft.
He said: "Having muscular dystrophy was somewhat of an advantage for me as it meant I spent a lot more time on a computer when I was younger as I couldn't go out and play sports like other kids."
The then-schoolboy began offering his video editing services to small streamers for fun. Just as he was about to give up, Ross struck gold.
"I was working with a streamer called Bugha who only had about 20,000 subscribers," he said.
"Bugha played in the Fortnite World Cup in 2018 and won $3million. Overnight, his subscriber count hit one million.'
Bugha– now with 4.7million YouTube subscribers – stuck with Ross, and business 'spiralled from there'.
Ross then caught the eye of another famous Fornite player called Clix who had 3.5 million YouTube subscribers.
Following pressure from his parents, Ross went back to George Heriot's School for one day before quitting - and landed one of the biggest opportunities of his career.
He was asked to run a gaming channel fronted by UK YouTube icon KSI who boasts more than 22 million subscribers.
He now works as a freelancer, and manages content for professionals like Clix and top E-Sports organisation Sentinels, based in Los Angeles.
Top Fortnite streamers like Clix earn around £100,000 per month and Ross collects a lucrative commission for producing content.
The young entrepreneur now has his sights on relocating to the US to be closer to his star clients.
He added: "It's crazy how things have turned out.
"My job didn't exist a few years ago - now business is thriving.
"I hope to move to Dallas. With Fortnite, the servers are based there and many of the players are.
"I'm planning on taking the leap to move to be closer to my clients."
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