FnaticMSI

Fnatic
Location: Australia, United Kingdom and The Netherlands[1]
Founded: 2004
Manager(s): Sam Mathews
Sponsors: MSI
SteelSeries
Eizo
Divisions: Call of Duty 4
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Counter-Strike
Dota 2
Halo
Heroes of Newerth
League of Legends
Quake Live
StarCraft II
Website: fnatic.com

Fnatic (also known as, FnaticMSI) is a professional electronic sports organization based out of Australia, UK and The Netherlands. Fnatic was founded in July 23, 2004.[2] Fnatic is particularly well known for its highly successful Counter-Strike team, which is the single most financially-successful Counter-Strike team in electronic sports history.[3] Fnatic is one of the founding members of the G7 Teams.[4]

Contents

History

2004–2005

The Fnatic organization opened its door for E-Sports on July 23, 2004. A young entrepreneur named Sam Mathews found the organization with the help of Anne Mathews; with three separate squads, consisting of Unreal Tournament, Call of Duty and Counter Strike Female. On the opening week Fnatic welcomed the PainKiller player Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager. Sander dominated the PainKiller scene in 2004 and 2005 around the globe, racking up a lot of titles for Fnatic. Sander was joined by Andrew “Gellehsak” Ryder, Johan “Toxic” Quick, and Alexander "Ztrider" Ingarv to help expand Fnatic’s name in the PainKiller scene. The Unreal Tournament division with Laurens "Lauke" Pluijmaekers, Frank “R0X” Aartman, and Martijn “roach” Nuijens made their marks in the competitive gaming scene by winning major titles including WCG 2004. In mid 2005, the organization took their first step in Counter Strike competitive scene by picking up their first Counter Strike male squad. The Counter Strike team will later become world’s most financially successful team. Fnatic acquired sponsors including Everglide, Intel, NVIDIA and Sennheiser.[5]

2005–2006

Starting a fresh Counter Strike division was the first big step into the new chapter of Fnatic. Parting ways with the former Counter Strike squad from Spain, Fnatic introduced a new Swedish CS team including Oscar "Archi" Torgersen, Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, Harley "dsn" Örwall, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon, and Kristoffer 'Tentpole' Nordlund. The team added Oskar “ins” Holm in 2007, and Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl in 2009. Along with the new Counter Strike squad, Fnatic ventured into Quake 4 scene with players including James “TooGood” Harding, Stephan “Stelam” Lammert, and Mikael 'PURRI' Tarvainen. During 2005-2006, Fnatic won ESPORTS Team of The Year and placed top 3 in major tournaments such as ESWC and CPL.[6][7]

2006–2007

During 2006-2007 two of Fanatic’s veterans, Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager, and Laurens "Lauke" Pluijmaekers leave Fnatic as they retire from E-Sports. After ESWC 2006, Fnatic introduced their new addition Alexey "Cypher" Yanushevsky, whom the organization picked up to represent them in the Dueling scene alongside James “TooGood” Harding and Alexander "Ztrider" Ingarv. Yanushevsky went on to place in the top 3 in Quake III and Quake 4 at WSVG and QuakeCon. Also during this time, the Fnatic.CS division won events such as WEM, GG, NGL. The newest addition to the organization was the World of Warcraft division, Fnatic.WoW. Returning to represent Fnatic in the World of Warcraft 3v3 community was Fnatic’s very own TooGood, Vo0, and Ztrider. The squad full of FPS players took 2nd in WSVG China. In 2007 the team was again nominated for ESPORTS-Team of the year.[8][9]

2007–2008

2007-08 saw the addition of two new divisions, one for Call of Duty, Fnatic.COD represented by, Daniel "tidde" Asp, Johan "LINQAN" Lindqvist, Marcus "odyxz" Nilsson, Robin "rivve" Holmen and Mikael "zsilts" Smedberg; and one for Defense of the Ancients, Fnatic.DotA represented by Ritter "Ritter" Rusli, Romi "melen" Gunawan, Ariyanto "Lakuci" Sony, Sugiarto "BaHaMuT" Cahyadi, Jeffry "Neo" Lu. [10] The Fnatic.WoW division won top finishes in events including BlizzCon, IEM and MLG. During this time Fnatic welcomed Neil Kirk (co-founder TCM Gaming).

2008–2009

During 2008-09, Fnatic acquired sponsors MSI and SteelSeries, two supporters of E-Sports. At that point Fnatic became known as FnaticMSI.[11] Also during this time, Fnatic picks up Counter Strike players Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl as well as a new DotA team including Edvin "Kwom" Börjesson, Jonathan "Loda" Berg, Rasmus "Misery-" Berth, Rene "Kebap-" Werner, and Aringazin "Aidar" Aidar.[12] In 2009 the team also added Stevy "stevy" Verheyen to the FnaticMSI.CoD squad.[13] During 2008-09, FnaticMSI placed top three in events including ESWC, IEM, KODE5, CGS.

2009–2010

FnaticMSI.CS became the number one Counter Strike team of 2009. FnaticMSI.CoD also had a successful year. After being away from the Quake Series for a while, the organization finally announced a five man roster to represent them in global Quake events. The roster consist of David "deus" Kinnaird, Pierre-Emeric "l1nkje" Portier, Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira, Alessandro "Stermy" Avallone, and Kevin "strenx" Baeza.[14] They earned top 3 titles for FnaticMSI in events such as QuakeCon, and IEM. Also during this time, the organization parted ways with their DotA squad and Counter Strike player Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl, and welcomed Björn "threat" Pers. The team won E-Sports Team of Year again in 2009.[15]

2010–2011

During 2010-11, the team welcomed back Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl, hoping to relive their success of 2009. Although the team was able to win a few events, they still fell short to competitor Navi event after event, causing FnaticMSI to reform their Counter Strike team. This would be the biggest change FnaticMSI.CS saw since 2005, as the organization parted with Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl. The team welcomed three new players: Richard "Xizt" Landström, Faruk "Pita" Pita, and Marcus "Delpan" Larsson.[16] The new line up managed to win their first major event together, but soon thereafter fell apart. During this time, the team also retires from the Quake scene and part ways with its Quake players. FnaticMSI.HoN was restructured with players like Johan "N0tail" Sundstein, Kalle "Trixi" Saarinen, Henrik "Freshpro" Hansen, Jascha "Nova_" Markuse, and Tal "Fly" Aizik.[17] In 2010, FnaticMSI created a League of Legends division FnaticMSI.LoL with including Enrique Javier "xPeke" Martinez, Maciej "Shushei" Ratuszniak, Manuel "LamiaZeaLoT" Mildenberger, Lauri "Cyanidefi" Happonen, Max "MagicFingers" Dreysse, and Peter "Mellisan" Meisrimel.[18] The team was able to win every major title in Heroes of Newerth and League of Legends this year. In addition, FnaticMSI added of a console (Xbox) division, and a fresh Starcraft II division including Chia Yang "Sen" Cheng and GSL runner up Seo-Yong "Rain" Park.[19]

Notable alumni

Achievements

Main article: List of Fnatic achievements

References

  1. ^ "FNATIC.com". FNATIC.com. http://www.fnatic.com/about/. Retrieved 2011-06-30. 
  2. ^ "fnatic turns 2 year old". fnatic. http://www.fnatic.com/feature/3634/Fnatic-turns-2-years-old.html. 
  3. ^ "Team Money Ranking". SK Gaming. http://www.sk-gaming.com/esportindex/?a=s&n=fnatic&t=t. 
  4. ^ "G7 Teams Announced". G7 Teams. 2006-08-08. http://www.g7teams.com/pr/2006-08-08_g7teams_forms.pdf. Retrieved 2010-10-22. 
  5. ^ "fnatic turns one year". fnatic. 2005-07-24. http://www.fnatic.com/news/116/Fnatic-turns-one-year-old.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  6. ^ "fnatic E-sports team of the year 2006". fnatic. 2006-08-26. http://www.fnatic.com/feature/3647/Fnatic-Wins-E-Sports-Team-of-the-year-amp-f0rest-CS-player-of-the-year-at-GC.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  7. ^ "fnatic turns 2 yaear". fnatic. 2006-07-22. http://www.fnatic.com/feature/3634/Fnatic-turns-2-years-old.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  8. ^ "fnatic nominated E-sports team 2007". fnatic. 2007-07-24. http://www.fnatic.com/news/1936/Fnatic-nominated-for-eSports-Awards-2007.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  9. ^ "fnatic best wishes 2007". fnatic. 2007-12-31. http://www.fnatic.com/feature/3675/Fnatic-wishes-you-the-best-for-2007.html#page-1. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  10. ^ "fnatic new dota and cod". fnatic. 2008-08-19. http://www.fnatic.com/articles/431/New-Additions-to-Fnatic-COD4-and-DOTA.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  11. ^ "msi partner". fnatic. 2008-10-15. http://www.fnatic.com/news/2530/MSI-and-FNATIC-insist-on-the-best.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  12. ^ "fnatic new dota". GosuGamers. 2009-03-13. http://www.gosugamers.net/dota/news/10193-fnatic-with-new-dota-team-tlt-joins. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  13. ^ "fnatic addes setvy". fnatic. 2009-05-19. http://www.fnatic.com/news/2851/FnaticMSI-CoD4-add-Stevy.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  14. ^ "strenx becomes 5th". sk-gaming. 2008-10-15. http://www.sk-gaming.com/content/26273-strenx_becomes_fnatics_fifth. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  15. ^ "fnatic". fnatic. 2009-08-23. http://www.fnatic.com/about/. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  16. ^ "pit as 5th". fnatic. 2010-12-09. http://www.fnatic.com/news/8327/FnaticMSI-CS-acquires-Pita-as-5th.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  17. ^ "fnatic hon". fnatic. 2010-08-11. http://www.fnatic.com/news/7864/FnaticMSI-HoN-re-structuring.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  18. ^ "fnatic enters LoL". fnatic. 2010-03-14. http://www.fnatic.com/news/8574/FnaticMSI-enters-League-of-Legends.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  19. ^ "fnatic welcomes rain". fnatic. 2011-06-25. http://www.fnatic.com/feature/8916/Rain-To-FnaticMSI-SC.html. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  20. ^ Fnatic (1990-01-06). "Fnatic Hall of Fame". fnatic. http://www.fnatic.com/halloffame/. Retrieved 2011-08-07. 
  21. ^ toxjq joins fantic, fnatic.com, July 22, 2006, http://www.fnatic.com/feature/3634/Fnatic-turns-2-years-old.html 
  22. ^ lauke profile, ggl.com, aug 14, 2004, http://www.ggl.com/index.php?controller=Account&method=view&profileId=19768 

External links