Teen Kept Playing “Fortnite” While Tornado Was Destroying His Neighbourhood

Main image via VICE

In case you’re not familiar with it, Fortnite is a video game about a post-apocalyptic earth, where most of the population has been killed by a massive storm. Worse, a group of zombie-like enemies has risen and is trying to eat the survivors.

Its player-versus-player version, where 100 gamers compete against one another to be the last one standing, is free and reportedly very addictive. So addictive that there have been reports of some players waking up at 6.30am for a fix ,and NBA players staying up all night to play the game.

Anton Williams is certainly no stranger to this game’s addictive qualities. On Sunday night, his home of Greensboro, North Carolina was declared a state of emergency because a tornado was on its way. The tornado was so terrible that it uprooted trees, tore down power lines, destroyed at least seven homes and left one person dead.

Now, here’s the bizarre bit. During the tornado, Anton was at home playing Fortnite. He was so focused on his game that when he noticed the roof fly off his neighbour’s house, he just sat right back down and continued playing!

"I was sitting at home and I was playing Fortnite, and all of sudden, I hear a bunch of noise," he told the reporter. "I look out the window and I started seeing the roof come off the houses in front of me. I sit back down because I only have a couple people left in my game, and I was going to try to finish the game."

Thankfully, Anton decided to move his sister and nephew to safety in the bathroom when he saw the power lines come down. Though, when the reporter asked him what was going through his mind as he barricaded the bathroom with his family, he said, “Honestly, I was thinking about the game, but I was hoping everyone was OK around me," with an embarrassed smirk.

We're glad Anton and his family are OK, eventhough he took his time to get to safety. We'd like to remind everyone that tornados are very dangerous and deadly. In the event that your neighbourhood is expecting a tornado, you should stay away from windows and immediately move to a safe place such as the middle area of the lowest floor of your house or an underground basement.

Article via VICE