More than Clix: Top Fortnite Pro Builds With Boys & Girls Club
At 18 years old, Cody “Clix” Conrod is one of the most popular Fortnite players on the planet.
In the four years since he’s been on the scene, he’s made millions of dollars from both competitions and his wildly popular Twitch channel.
He’s also launched a personal lifestyle brand selling merch to his ever-growing fanbase.
A fan base he’s hoping to build beyond the walls of the game through a new partnership with Boys & Girls Club of America.
Real Life Royale
On the surface, Clix is a teenager living a rockstar lifestyle, all thanks to his esports and streaming superstardom.
He recently moved into a $5,000,000 condo in Dallas after Epic Games announced that they built a dedicated low-latency central server catering to the Central United States and Mexico.
Stating in his announcement video, “Obviously I’m going to move for Fortnite.”
His success thus far has also afforded him the means to purchase a brand-new Lamborghini, which he showed off on his Instagram and YouTube.
All this while becoming the first person in the world to reach the “UNREAL” rank in Fortnite.
However, it’s a few layers deeper where you’ll find a more complete, or at the very least more contextual story.
From the Ground Up
When Clix was 14 years old he convinced his dad to buy him a $1,200 PC under the condition he sign a written agreement to pay him back.
Doing chores around the house was the main option, but it was ultimately left up to the young teen how he would go about getting the funds.
It was quite the shock to his father when two weeks later, Clix paid him back with winnings from an online Fortnite tournament.
“It was a huge milestone and stepping stone for my career,” said Clix.
Thanks to an older brother with a gaming PC, Clix was fortunate enough to understand a key principle early on in the game.
Having access to high-end gaming hardware was the only way he could have a real chance at turning his hobby and passion for gaming into an actual career.
Now, just like it was done for him, he’s ready to provide that same access and opportunity to an entire community of young people with the Boys and Girls Club.
Building a New Community
Coming out of COVID lockdowns, the Boys and Girls Club of America took a poll from their nearly 5000 locations around the world to see what activities kids wanted to participate in the coming year.
BGCA Senior Director of Sports and Esports Eric Osborne said the results, while not shocking, did present a challenge to some of the members of the senior leadership team.
For the first time in the organization's storied history, traditional sports no longer drew the most interest.
“We didn’t really know what the esports world was,” said Osborne, “we just had this vision of kids sitting down and not doing anything all day. It’s so much more than that.”
Early in the game he learned that having a gaming program at the clubs also gave kids the opportunity to learn transferable technical skills.
But the real eye-opener for Osborne and the team over at BGCA was they began to see the similarities shared between traditional sports and esports.
Mainly, the amount of influence the big-time gaming personalities like Clix has on the younger generation.
So when the sports director heard that Clix wanted to offer a dream opportunity for a group of kids in his new community in Dallas, he didn’t hesitate to say yes.
Dreaming Together
Throughout his young career Clix has gained notoriety not only for his high level of play, but also for his ability to build a strong community.
Most notably his over 6 million Twitch followers.
This new relationship with the BGCA will now give him the opportunity to reach out and engage his fanbase in a more substantial way.
“I want to influence these kids now that if you put in the work now,” Clix continued,
“[forget] the parties, the drugs and alcohol and all that and just really lock-in.”
His actions back up his words.
Clix recently granted a large group of kids from his now local Boys and Girls Club the opportunity to attend Dreamhack Dallas — a large annual gaming festival held at the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center.
The club members who attended had a chance to watch Clix play live as well as take part in the entire 3-day weekend worth of events and activations.
If you ask the BGCA sports director, opportunities like this are what could turn dreams into reality.
“Most of our kids didn’t know what Dreamhack was,” said Osborne. “We say that esports is a much bigger world. But if you don’t see it, what does that really mean?”
The Next Level
The next step became clear the moment the Fortnite phenom walked into the Dallas Boys and Girls club. He was immediately recognized by a group of his fans.
Just like with the polls they sent out post-COVID, after spending time with Clix, the overwhelming response was that the kids wanted more.
“It’s just a real experience. All kids remember meeting their favorite athlete,” speaking appreciatively of Clix, “I think it’s a really important experience.
One of those kids was a 13-year-old Fortnite player named Christian who has been following Clix for most of the gamers' rise to stardom.
“I was pretty stoked,” said the young teen with a smile full of braces, “I watch his streams and YouTube videos.”
As Clix was speaking to the group of kids, Christian was there taking diligent notes from someone he calls an inspiration.
Little did the boy know, his love and admiration was in turn a source of inspiration for Clix.
“The feeling I get from it is indescribable,” he said, it’s always been my dream to be an influence to kids.”
Next up for Clix will be speaking to nearly 2,000 teens at the BGCA Keystone Conference in late July.
