Johnathan Wendel

Johnathan Wendel
Fatal1ty
Johnathan Wendel at E3 2014
Status	Retired
Date of birth	(1981-02-26) February 26, 1981
Hometown	Independence, Missouri
Nationality	United States
Games	Quake Quake 2 Quake 3 Aliens versus Predator 2 Return to Castle Wolfenstein Call of Duty 2 Counter-Strike: Source Unreal Tournament 2003 Doom 3 Painkiller Quake 4 Counter-Strike Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Official website

Johnathan Wendel (born February 26, 1981), also known by the gamertag Fatal1ty (pronounced Fatality), is a former professional electronic sports player and entrepreneur. Johnathan is considered the world's first prominent and accomplished professional gamer.^[1] He was once considered one of the best professional gamers in the world.^[2]

Biography

Wendel has won approximately US$450,000 in cash and prizes from professional competitions, mainly in the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL).^[3] In addition to receiving numerous product partnerships with his company Fatal1ty Brand (Fatal1ty, Inc.), he has been featured in mainstream newsprint publications such as Time, The New York Times, Forbes, and the BBC World Service. He has also been featured on 60 Minutes. He has a training regimen^[4] where he practices at least eight hours each day, sometimes more.

Wendel has been a successful competitor in many first-person shooter games. He debuted as a professional gamer in October 1999 by placing 3rd in the Quake III Arena tournament at the CPL's FRAG 3 event. He has competed in tournaments with Counter-Strike, Call of Duty and Quake III Arena which he won with his team clan Kapitol at the first-ever CPL Teamplay World Championships (FRAG 4). Most of his successes have been with one-versus-one deathmatch games including Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament 2003, and Painkiller. During his career, he has won a total of twelve world championship titles, including four player of the year awards with the Cyberathlete Professional League^[5] and one with the World Cyber Games.^[6]

On March 13, 2003, Wendel was profiled on an episode of MTV's True Life reality television series. It was filmed in Kansas City, Kansas; San Antonio, Texas; and Dallas, Texas. The episode documented his life and how he prepared for the Cyberathlete Professional League's Winter 2002 Unreal Tournament 2003. Among those featured alongside Wendel in the professional gaming industry were his friends Phil "shogun" Kennedy, and Brian "astro" Lewis, who were also very well known in the professional gaming circuit.^[7]

Wendel started a business, Fatal1ty, Inc., selling his brand of gaming mouse pads, "FATpads". He later expanded this into other gaming products through a business partnership with OCZ Technology, Creative Labs, ASRock, GamerFood and Southern Enterprises, Inc. to create motherboards, energy snacks, sound cards, gaming desks, computer mice, headphones, and power supplies bearing his moniker.^[8]

Wendel was the spokesman of the now defunct Championship Gaming Series and has put aside actively competing.^[9]

In honor of his contributions to video gaming, Wendel was awarded the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award by eSports. He was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in August 2010 and holds a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.^[10]

In July 2012, Topps released their 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball set, which includes autographs and worn shirt memorabilia cards of Wendel.^[11]

Fatal1ty held the record for most prize money won in all of electronic sports until he was overthrown by StarCraft II player Jaedong near the end of 2013.^[12]^[13]