Fnatic

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Fnatic pty ltd
Location Headquarters in London, United Kingdom,[1] incorporated in Australia[2]
Founded 2005
Manager(s) Sam Mathews and Anne Mathews
Sponsors MSI
SteelSeries
Eizo
Winamax
Divisions Counter-Strike: Global Offensive
Dota 2
Fighting games
League of Legends
ShootMania Storm
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm
Website fnatic.com

Fnatic is a professional electronic sports team headquartered in London.[1] Founded on July 23, 2004,[3] Fnatic has a number of esports teams on its roster, including a highly successful Counter-Strike team.[4] and one of the best League of Legends teams in the World. Fnatic operated a dedicated gaming house in South Korea for its Starcraft II teams but moved it to Cologne, Germany to establish a training facility for the in the LCS competing League of Legends Squad.[5] Fnatic is one of the founding members of the G7 Teams.[6]

Overview

The organization was founded on July 23, 2004 by Sam Mathews with the help of Anne Mathews. Fnatic has won the eSports Award Team of The Year in 2006,[7] and 2009.[8] During 2007-2008 Fnatic welcomed Neil Kirk (co-founder TCM Gaming). After playing several years for Fnatic, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon, one of the best CS:1.6 players became the Chief Gaming Officer of Fnatic in 2012. Since 2013, Anne Mathews took over the position of Sam Mathews as the CEO of Fnatic. Sam Mathews still remains as a Chairman in the organisation.

During 2008-09, Fnatic acquired sponsors MSI and SteelSeries. At that point, Fnatic became known as FnaticMSI.[9] Recently, Fnatic and MSI announced the MSI Beat It! tournament. The world's largest Counter Strike: Global Offensive competition.[10] On the first of June, 2011, EIZO started to sponsor Fnatic and is still providing them with monitors. In January 2012, Fnatic took on RaidCall as a sponsor.[11] However this didn’t mean the end of partnership with MSI, as they continue to provide the organization with laptops, graphics cards, and motherboards. With the new title Sponsor, Fnatic was able to expend their territory into the Korean gaming scene, as they became the first foreign e-sports team to acquire a Professional Gaming House in Seoul, South Korea.[12] Fnatic and RaidCall quit their collaboration in early 2013 and soon after the online Poker site Winamax was introduced as a new sponsor.[13] In 2013, Alexander Zavoloka, a common face in the Russian e-sports scene, stepped down from the position as the Editor-in-Chief and got replaced by Andreja Mahovic, a former Dota 2 professional.[14]

First Person Shooter

The team originally organized three separate squads, an Unreal Tournament team, a Call of Duty team, and an all female Counter Strike team. During their first year, Fnatic added PainKiller player Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager, and added Andrew “Gellehsak” Ryder, Johan “Toxic” Quick, and Alexander "Ztrider" Ingarv to their PainKiller lineup later that year. The Unreal Tournament division with Laurens "Lauke" Pluijmaekers, Frank “R0X” Aartman, and Martijn “roach” Nuijens won WCG 2004. In summer 2005, the organization picked up an all male squad for the game Counter-Strike.[15]

In January 2006, Fnatic replaced the previous Spanish Counter-Strike team with a new Swedish CS lineup consisting of Oscar "Archi" Torgersen, Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, Harley "dsn" Örwall, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon, and Kristoffer "Tentpole" Nordlund.[16] 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 added a Quake 4 team including players James “TooGood” Harding, Stephan “Stelam” Lammert, and Mikael 'PURRI' Tarvainen. During 2005-2006, Fnatic placed top 3 in major tournaments such as ESWC and CPL.[17]

During 2006-2007, Fnatic players Sander “Vo0” Kaasjager, and dodidodi Laurens "Lauke" Pluijmaekers retired 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 squad full of FPS players took 2nd in WSVG China. In 2007 the team was again nominated for ESPORTS-Team of the year.[18][19]

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.[20]

During 2008-09, FnaticMSI placed top three in events including ESWC, IEM, KODE5, CGS. During 2008-2009, Fnatic picks up Counter Strike players Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl.[21] In 2009 the team also added Stevy "stevy" Verheyen to the FnaticMSI.CoD squad.[22]

From 2009-2010, several things happened. After being away from the Quake Series for a while, the organization announced a five man roster to represent them in global Quake events consisting of David "deus" Kinnaird, Pierre-Emeric "l1nkje" Portier, Sebastian "Spart1e" Siira, Alessandro "Stermy" Avallone, and Kevin "strenx" Baeza.[23] 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.

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 Na`Vi event after event, causing FnaticMSI to reform their Counter Strike team. In FnaticMSI.CS's the biggest lineup change since 2005, the organization parted with Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg, Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund and Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl and added Richard "Xizt" Landström, Faruk "Pita" Pita, and Marcus "Delpan" Larsson.[24] 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.

From the mid-2011 to late 2011, Fnatic’s Counter Strike team placed top three in many events with their new acquired Danish AWP player, Michael “Friis” Jorgensen.[25]

As Pita decided to step back from gaming, Fnatic welcomed Andreas “MODDII” Fridh as the next rifle man.[26] Also probably a big surprise to all, when arguably the best in game leader in counter strike, Patrik “cArn” Sattermon announced his retirement before the IEM World Finals. However carn was not ready to call quit on his passion, as he directed his passion more towards the management side of the scene. He became the first CGO (Chief Gaming Officer) of Fnatic.[27] Xizt took on the role of the in game leader, as the team welcomes Finn “Karrigan” Andersen, another Danish player to fill the void left by the departure of cArn. The new squad was surprising able to win their first major LAN event at Copenhagen Games 2012. The same weekend FnaticRC.aLive was able to win his first ever major tournament at IPL4 Las Vegas.[28]

After fnatic CS won DreamHack Summer and Swedish Championship, Rasmus "Gux" Stahl decided to retire from Counter Strike and left an open spot in Fnatic. On 26 June Fnatic announced that Martin "trace" Heldt will be the 5th in the team. After this transfer Fnatic.CS changes the flag to the Danish one after a dominance of Swedes in the lineup. In August Richard "Xizt" Landstorm left the team to play CS:GO in Team NiP; Emil "FYRR73" Karlsson was announced as his replacement.

As one of the best teams in the World, Fnatic decided to switch to CS:GO as one of the last teams in the scene. In order to complete the roster, Fnatic announced that Xyp9x & JOKERN will join the other three Danish players to compete in Counter Strike: Global Offensive.[29] The squad were not able to bring the required results, so the organisation decided to go in a different direction. Rytter, who joined Fnatic not long before they switched to CS:GO and Jokern were replaced by Moddi and Stinger.[30] Now the squad was not an all Danish line-up. In May, Fnatic announced that another player will make their return to the CS squad, Karrigan took over, in place of Stringer in order to bring Fnatic back to the top. Only a few months later, in July, the rumors of Moddii leaving Fnatic, were confirmed and soon Fnatic announced the end of an Era, as they were parting ways with the remaining four players, Michael "Friis" Jørgensen, Martin "Trace" Heldt, Andreas "Xyp9x" Højsleth and Finn "Karrigan" Andersen.[31] During that time the team was able to finish in the 3rd/4th position of the EMS Season 1 Finals.[32]

For a number of weeks, Fnatic was without a CS:GO team. They published the announcement that they picked up the ex-Epsilon team, which in the mean time picked up Moddii as their fifth player.[33] So far, the new team has finished second in the MadCatz invitational in Birminham.[34]

Besides making the transition to CS:GO, Fnatic also expanded into a new game. In November 2012, Fnatic announced that they picked up a Shootmania team. Recruiting Kévin "Strenx" Baéza, a former member of their previous Quake team as well as two new players, Maikel "LeKaiM" Peeters and Jean Pierre "JiePie" Janssen. The trio won numerous smaller cups, also the Shootmania Launch Party, where they claimed $30,000.[35]

Real Time Strategy

With DXRacer joining the list of sponsors, Fnatic decided to expand to Korea by being the first foreign team to establish a permanent training facility for the players. On March 19, 2012 they announce that they will open the Fnatic Gaming House in Seoul.[36] In order to fill the gaming house, the eSports organisation picked up several talents from the Korean StarCraft II scene. In January, DeParture and the Warcraft legend, Moon, as well as aLive move into the gaming house. They are coached by Hwanni who also joined Fnatic that month. Later, also OZ and Luvsic are signed by Fnatic. During that time also in the European department, players join and leave. Fnatic announced in July that ToD will part ways with them. But Harstem and Naama are added to the roster.[37] Then at the end of 2012 the first Koreans leave Fnatic. First off, Rain announces his retirement and therefore leaves the team. He is followed by Byul, Ares and Moon. Only two players are left in Korea and thus Fnatic announces to switch the focus back to Europe. They close down the Gaming House and end the contracts with aLive and OZ.[38] In the mean time Harstem was promoted from the Academy to the main roster, and the team picks up SaSe, another well known face in the scene.[39] Further, Pink, Zanster and Hellokitty are recruited to play for Fnatic.

ARTS

In 2006-2007 Fnatic added a 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 Fnatic.WoW division won top finishes in events including BlizzCon, IEM and MLG.

Fnatic added first a Defense of the Ancients team Fnatic.DotA in 2007-2008, represented by Ritter "Ritter" Rusli, Romi "melen" Gunawan, Ariyanto "Lakuci" Sony, Sugiarto "BaHaMuT" Cahyadi, Jeffry "Neo" Lu.[20] Formerly they were known as XcN DotA.

In 2008-2009, Fnatic picked up a new DotA team including Edvin "Kwom" Börjesson, Jonathan "Loda" Berg, Rasmus "Misery-" Berth, Rene "Kebap-" Werner, and Aringazin "Aidar" Aidar.[21]

In 2012, Fnatic picked up the former GamersLeague Dota 2 squad in order to compete with the top teams. The all Serbian lineup placed fourth in ESWC, but soon after that the team parted ways with Fnatic.[40]

During 2010-2011 FnaticMSI.HoN was restructured with players like Johan "N0tail" Sundstein, Kalle "Trixi" Saarinen, Henrik "Freshpro" Hansen, Jascha "Nova_" Markuse, and Tal "Fly" Aizik.[41]

After the department of the Serbian Dota 2 team, the HoN team which claimed four Dreamhack titles made the transition to Valve’s new MOBA, Dota 2.[42] Yet the team had to replace Jascha "NoVa_" Markuse who didn’t want to switch to Dota 2.[43] In order to fill the gap, Fnatic recruited Trixi Kalle Saarinen, who left the HoN Squad a few months earlier. During the early stages, the team had a rough time playing the new game, but improved quite fast and achieved the first win in form of the SLTV ProSeries Season 2. Further, Fnatic established a North American Squad by picking up JT.Dota [44] During that time the former HoN team made a name for themselves in the Dota 2 Scene, winning several tournaments online and offline, by beating the top teams in Europe. They were invited to The International 2013, where they finished among the top eight.[45]

Fnatic also entered the League of Legends scene by acquiring the roster of myRevenge in March, 2011. Only two months later, WetDreaM left Fnatic, right before Riot’s Season 1 Championship.[46] Nevertheless, Fnatic performed incredibly well during Season 1 and was crowned the Season 1 Champions. But then the team started to fall apart, also due to the fact that Season two was not nearly as good as the first one. First off, MagicFingers departed from Fnatic and Mellissan went inactive. In order to fill the position, Fnatic hires Pheilox to step in.[47] The team goes through some massive changes between June and September. Shuhei, Mellisan, Pheilox, and Lamia leave the roster and have to be replaced by sOAZ, and nRated.[48][49][50] Yet the team was lacking a capable AD Carry and thus the 16 year old Rekkles was recruited.[51] At that point Fnatic found their old strength, winning DreamHack Winter 2012, finishing second at IPL 5 in Las Vegas and IEM Season VII - Global Challenge Cologne [52] Due to the fact that Rekkles is not old enough to play in the Riot Season 3 Championship, he had to be replaced with YellOwStar. But the young swede remained in Fnatic and formed the Fnatic Beta team. With YellOwstar as their AD Carry, Fnatic won the Spring Split of Season 3. but during the Summer Split, the team struggled a bit and came to the decision that a player had to leave the team. In July 2013, Fnatic announced changes in the LoL Roster. nRated, the main support leaves the team and YellOwstar, the former AD carry switches roles to play support. Puszu joins the team in Cologne in their Gaming House to finish Season 3 as Fnatic’s AD Carry.[53] The changes in the Roster proved to be the right step as Fnatic was able to win the Season 3 Summer split as well and qualify for the World Finals in Los Angeles, California. Although Rekkles would have been old enough to play in the World Finals, the team decided to play with Puszu as their AD Carry, as he performed really well during the season and they didn’t want to practise with two different Carries. During the Group Stage of Season 3: World Finals, Fnatic only dropped one game and found themselves in the Quarter Finals against Cloud 9 - the best team from North America - with a 2:1 victory over them Fnatic advances to the Semi Finals against Royal Club Huang Zu. This is where the run of Fnatic ends, but they finish in the 3rd-4th position at the World Finals.[54]

Other Divisions

In 2008, Fnatic picked up Maximo12, a talented FIFA soccer player who won several titles in 2008-09. Winning the WCG Spain 2008 is only one of them.[55] Also, in 2012, Perfect Legend joins the Fnatic Team. He is known to be one of the best Fighting Game Players in the world, claiming three EVO titles and numerous other events. [56]

Notable Players

Achievements

Main article: List of Fnatic achievements

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "contact us page". Fnatic. Retrieved 3 Oct 2013. 
  2. ↑ "Fnatic Pty Ltd trademarks in Australia". IP Australia. Retrieved 3 Oct 2013. 
  3. ↑ ‘tuxie’ Roy Vuitton (22 Jul 2006). "fnatic turns 2 years old". Fnatic. Retrieved 3 Oct 2013. 
  4. ↑ "Team Money Ranking". SK Gaming. 
  5. ↑ ‘Lexx’ Alexander Zavoloka (19 Mar 2012). "Fnatic Opens Gaming House Korea". Fnatic. Retrieved 3 Oct 2013. 
  6. ↑ "G7 Teams Announced". G7 Teams. 8 Aug 2006. Retrieved 22 Oct 2010. 
  7. ↑ ‘tuxie’ Roy Vuitton (26 Aug 2006). "fnatic E-sports team of the year 2006". fnatic. Retrieved 14 Aug 2011. 
  8. ↑ "About us". fnatic. 23 Aug 2009. Retrieved 14 Aug 2011. 
  9. ↑ ‘kboy’ Neil Kirk (15 Oct 2008). "msi partner". fnatic. Retrieved 14 Aug 2011. 
  10. ↑ http://www.fnatic.com/content/95681
  11. ↑ Marc Winther "Nix0n" (2012-01-19). "RaidCall title Sponsor". Hltv. Retrieved 16 May 2012. 
  12. ↑ ‘Lexx’ Alexander Zavoloka (19 Mar 2012). "Gaming House in Korea". Fnatic. Retrieved 16 May 2012. 
  13. ↑ "Winamax and Fnatic join forces". Fnatic.com. 6 October 2013. Retrieved 6 October 2013. 
  14. ↑ ‘hxd’ Harry Wiggett (5 Jan 2012). "New EIC". Fnatic. Retrieved 16 May 2012. 
  15. ↑ ‘sizah’ Joris van Laerhoven (24 Jul 2005). "fnatic turns one year old". fnatic. Retrieved 14 Aug 2011. 
  16. ↑ ‘FnaticSAM’ Sam Mathews (5 Jan 2006). "Fnatic announces new CS Lineup!". Fnatic. Retrieved 4 Oct 2013. 
  17. ↑ "fnatic turns 2 yaear". fnatic. 2006-07-22. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  18. ↑ "fnatic nominated E-sports team 2007". fnatic. 2007-07-24. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  19. ↑ "fnatic best wishes 2007". fnatic. 2007-12-31. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 "fnatic new dota and cod". fnatic. 2008-08-19. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 "fnatic new dota". GosuGamers. 2009-03-13. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  22. ↑ "fnatic addes setvy". fnatic. 2009-05-19. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  23. ↑ "strenx becomes 5th". sk-gaming. 2008-10-15. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  24. ↑ "pit as 5th". fnatic. 2010-12-09. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  25. ↑ "fnatic welcomes Friis". fnatic. 2011-09-11. Retrieved 2012-05-16. 
  26. ↑ "Moddii joins". Fnatic. 2012-01-30. Retrieved 2012-05-16. 
  27. ↑ "Carn retires". Fnatic. 2012-03-04. Retrieved 2012-05-16. 
  28. ↑ "fnatic golden weekend". Fnatic. 2012-04-10. Retrieved 2012-05-16. 
  29. ↑ "Fnaticbrings in Xyp9x & JOKERN". razrrr_. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  30. ↑ "Roster Changes in Fnatic CS Team". Fnatic.com. Lexx. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  31. ↑ "The end of an era". Fnatic.com. Inz. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  32. ↑ "RaidCall EMS One Bracket". Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  33. ↑ "Meet the new CS Team". Fnatic.com. Andre_. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  34. ↑ "Fnatic finish Second at MadCatz Invitational". Fnatic.com. inz. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  35. ↑ "Fnatic takes gold at SMLP". Fnatic.com. zauron. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  36. ↑ "Fnatic opens Gaming House in Korea". Fnatic.com. Lexx. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  37. ↑ http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft2/Fnatic. Retrieved 9 October 2013.  Missing or empty |title= (help)
  38. ↑ "Alive and OZ leave Fnatic". Fnatic.com. inz. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  39. ↑ "Fnatic adds SaSe". Fnatic.com. inz. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  40. ↑ "Fnatic welcomes Dota 2 team". Fnatic.com. Phll. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  41. ↑ "fnatic hon". fnatic. 2010-08-11. Retrieved 2011-08-14. 
  42. ↑ "Fnatic HoN switches to Dota 2". Fnatic.com. Andre_. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  43. ↑ "NoVa leaves Fnatic". Fnatic.com. Lexx. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  44. ↑ "Fnatic Dota 2 in 2012". Fnatic.com. Krockadyle. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  45. ↑ "Fnatic at TI3". Fnatic.com. JRUE. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  46. ↑ "WetDreaM leaves Fnatic". Fnatic.com. stoner. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  47. ↑ "Fnatic adds sixth player". Fnatic.com. hxd. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  48. ↑ "Lamia retires". fnatic.com. lexx. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  49. ↑ "nRated joins Fnatic". fnatic.com. hxd. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  50. ↑ "fnatic welcomes soaz". fnatic.com. lexx. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  51. ↑ "rekkles joins Fnatic". fnatic.com. inz. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  52. ↑ "Fnatic achievements". Lol gamepedia. unknown. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  53. ↑ "roster changes in fnatic lol". fnatic.com. mac. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  54. ↑ "Fnatic finishes 3rd/4th at WF". gamepedia. N/A. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  55. ↑ "Maximo12 wins WCG Spain". fnatic.com. WoN. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  56. ↑ "Fnatic adds Perfect Legend". fnatic.com. iyonic. Retrieved 9 October 2013. 
  57. ↑ Fnatic (1990-01-06). "Fnatic Hall of Fame". fnatic. Retrieved 2011-08-07. 
  58. ↑ toxjq joins fnatic, fnatic.com, July 22, 2006 
  59. ↑ lauke profile, ggl.com, aug 14, 2004 

External links

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