Meet MrSavage, the bleach blond Norwegian Fortnite savant with millions of followers

MrSavage does not entirely suit his name. Sure, the Norwegian Fortnite savant mercilessly destroys most competitors who cross his path, but when I knock on the door of his Oslo apartment, I’m met by a lanky 18-year-old with a broad smile, arm extended to politely shake my hand. Hardly savage behaviour. He doesn’t look especially savage either, with his mop of white blonde hair (“I re-dyed it, like, a week ago,” he says) and the porcelain skin of a teenager who spends most of his daylight hours gaming.

Known offline as Martin Foss Andersen, MrSavage was introduced to Fortnite at age 12 by his older brother. “Me and my brother have always been pretty competitive in sports and all of our hobbies,” Andersen says. “One time I went downstairs into his room and saw him playing, and I was like, ‘What is this game? It looks fun’. And he was like, ‘You can try yourself, but not on my PC’.” Typical big brother response. Andersen returned to his room, downloaded Fortnite and was off to the races. Almost immediately, it became clear he was just better at it than other players, including the ones who were live-streaming their gameplay to millions of viewers. “I was like, ‘Wait, I can do what they’re doing’,” he recalls. So, with the encouragement of his brother (“You need to put this on the internet”), he started streaming himself.

For those of a certain age without teenaged children or younger siblings, Fortnite is an online video game in which 100 competitors battle it out to be the last player standing (there are other modes of play, but Fortnite Battle Royale is the runaway success and the iteration gamers play competitively). “You drop on to an island and there’s a storm around the island that shrinks in towards the centre, so all of the players get pushed towards each other,” Andersen explains. You can play by yourself or with up to two teammates. Players arrive at the island unarmed and must find weapons in order to kill their opponents. The final piece of the puzzle – the one that really separates the pros from the amateurs – is building, which, as the name suggests, consists of creating structures to protect oneself and aid in overall gameplay. Within the first two weeks of the game’s release in 2017, it had attracted over 10 million players. Andersen started playing about two weeks after that. From age 15 to 17, he was the most followed Norwegian on Twitter. These days, he’s pushing three million followers on the streaming platform Twitch, with a cool 2.6 million on Instagram.

What sets Andersen apart from millions of other players is his creativity. “I was sort of known for doing unique things that people hadn’t seen before,” he says. In fact, on more than one occasion Andersen single-handedly originated a tactic that then became widely considered the most efficient or successful tactic possible. “It’s just small tricks I’ve invented – most of the time it’s just on the fly,” he says. “It’s kind of creative and spontaneous.” Unexpectedly encountering MrSavage, who generally plays with a “skin” that makes his character appear as rapper Travis Scott, in Fortnite is sort of like running into LeBron James at a pickup game. As for his screen name? “I just thought it sounded cool when I was 12,” he says.

When he first started out, Andersen’s parents weren’t entirely on board with his emerging career path. “They let me play a lot, but they were saying, ‘You need to go do some sports’,” he says. They sent him off to table tennis practice (he had quite an aptitude for that, too), but as the streaming numbers kept rising and it became evident that their son could start making some real money from this thing, mum and dad quickly became “very supportive”.

The only problem was, Andersen was too young to compete in the formal tournaments, which, at the time, had a minimum age limit of 16 (after Andersen qualified for a tournament in Poland but was prohibited from competing in the finals, they lowered the age limit to 13). Still, at 13, he won his first unofficial tournament, earning him a cool $5,000. “That was pretty good, as a 13-year-old,” he says, smiling. I ask him what he spent it on. “I didn’t really spend any money. I just save my money, to be honest.” Today, he’s known within the industry as the face of competitive Fortnite.

Preparing for a tournament is no easy process. Each season (a season lasts three months), the game is changed (new terrain, new layout), meaning Andersen and his teammate (these days he plays with a fellow Norwegian, Miran Tavakolzadeh, who goes by the name IDrop) need to develop an entirely new strategy. “When you’re playing against 50 teams that are the best in Europe, you need to have the best strategy. But it doesn’t help having the best strategy if you can’t execute it as well,” Andersen says. “You need to practise until it’s almost muscle memory.” For that, he has a coach and a meticulous practice schedule. Though the stakes are high – first place in the World Cup is $3,000,000 – Andersen doesn’t really get nervous, nor does he react in an extreme manner if he loses. “Most people rage so much when they die, but I don’t really rage that much,” he says. Never? “Well, I react if it’s a really bullshit way of dying.” His pre-tournament routine is an intensive two-hour prep (concluding with listening to music and washing his hands so they aren’t sweaty). On average, he’ll play eight hours every single day.

A couple months ago, Andersen signed to the gaming and lifestyle collective 00Nation, which boasts an impressive Oslo office a short drive from his apartment. His roommate, Emil "Nyhrox" Bergquist Pedersen, who won the $1.5 million grand prize at the inaugural Fortnite World Cup in 2019, had been with them for a while and it seemed like a good vibe. In addition to representing gamers, 00Nation represents actors (including Skam alum Herman Tømmeraas), musicians, artists – any creative, really, with an interest in gaming. “They have their talents do collabs with each other,” says Andersen, adding that these collaborations – often executed via social media – help to build youth communities in unique ways. Case in point: when Andersen announced he had joined 00Nation, he did it with a video of a so-called “death dive” (it’s essentially jumping off a very high platform into water in an extreme manner. 00Nation represents a couple of 'Death Divers'). “I wasn’t that scared,” he says, noting that he first jumped off a one-metre platform, then a five-metre before eventually making it up to 10.

When I ask 00Nation CEO Sebastian Geurts why Andersen was a good fit for the roster, he instantly points to his adaptability. “Whether it’s a fashion runway or an action packed challenge, he just fits,” says Geurts, adding that the vision of 00Nation is the crossover of culture rooted in gaming. “He’s obviously an excellent gamer, but it’s a lot more to him and that’s the key to longevity and success.” Diversification is key when it comes to gaming, especially given that many gamers retire from competing before they reach the age of 20. While Andersen takes no prisoners online, offline Geurts describes him as “genuine to the bone”.

The emergence of 00Nation aside, Norway isn’t a great place to be a professional Fortnite player. Sure, a cold, dark winter might lend itself to indoor activities, but practically, the country’s lack of proximity to the Fortnite servers causes a tiny but crucial delay in gameplay. “In Norway, you have a 25 millisecond delay,” says Andersen. Meanwhile, Germany, France and England are only delayed by 10 or 15 milliseconds. “When your opponent is really good, ten milliseconds can change the whole game.” When Andersen plays a big tournament, he flies to the UK or Germany to level the playing field. However, in a few hours he’ll be playing the qualifying round of a tournament from the adjacent room (he doesn’t generally make plans the day of a tournament, but he’s made an exception).

We head up to MrSavage’s roof to take some portraits. He’s quite a natural in front of the camera, even while wearing short sleeves in the freshly fallen Norwegian snow. He’s used to streaming his face to millions of fans. Still, shooting for Vogue is something rather novel. “I did not expect it. But maybe now I can do the trend,” he says, referring to a TikTok trend inspired by Drake lyrics. MrSavage raps: “Don’t tell me that you model if you ain’t been in Vogue.”