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12-year-old snubbed by ESPN, uses bracket to help others

By Alex Butler

LAKE ZURICH, Ill., April 11 (UPI) -- The Illinois sixth grader who beat out 11.57 million people in ESPN's Tournament Challenge wasn't eligible for a $20,000 Best Buy gift card and a trip to the 2015 Maui Jim Maui Invitational, but did use his prize to help others.

Sam Holtz, of Lake Zurich, filled out a bracket using his father's help and email address, but was not able to claim the ultimate jackpot because he fell under the 18-year-old age requirement.

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Best Buy awarded Holtz a $1,000 giftcard for his efforts. On Thursday, Holtz used the gift card to first buy himself a Microsoft XBox One, he then bought another for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, according to the Chicago Tribune.

"I decided to donate one of the XBox One systems to Make-A-Wish because of my cousin Alec," Sam told the Tribune. "When he was real little, he was in Make-A-Wish, and back then [23 years ago], people granted his wish of going to Disney World. I thought I'd kind of repay them for what they did for my cousin [who survived his illness and is now an adult]."

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Holtz said his father helped him enter the contest and allowed him to use his email address. It was unclear Tuesday whether Holtz would be eligible to claim a prize through his father.

"I'm irritated," Holtz told the Daily Herald. "Yes, I'm still proud of my accomplishment, but I'm not happy with the decision."

Holtz finsihed in the top one percent of contestants, based on points, and would have been entered into a drawing for the main prizes if he was older than 18. The sixth-grader missed just six games in the entire bracket, but said that he had no secret method.

"There is no secret," Holtz told the New York Post . "There was some luck, and I studied ESPN.com. I just picked the teams that I felt had the best players."

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