Fnatic's Reign – How One Organization has Dominated eSports

Published: August 27, 2015 2:00 PM /

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fnatic-logo

Over the weekend, two major eSports finals were taking place, and both involved Fnatic, a team whose name is synonymous with eSports since their founding in 2004. Fnatic was going up against EnVy in the ESL One Cologne finals, which is a major tournament for the CSGO community.

The final round begins, and Team EnVy is down 7-14 in favor of Fnatic. kioShima and apEX grab the first two kills for EnVy only to quickly be taken down by Flusha and Pronax of Fnatic. EnVy don't have much to work with as the remaining three members have Tec9s and just one Ak47. Suddenly Olofmeister and Flusha spot two of the remaining EnVy players, leaving it up to Happy in a critical 1v2 situation with just 6 HP remaining, and just like that Flusha grabs the final kill to secure Fnatic's ESL One victory and the $250,000 prize pool.

ESL One Trophy
The coveted ESL One Trophy

Meanwhile, as Fnatic's CSGO team is celebrating their victory, over in Stockholm Sweden the members of Fnatic's League of Legends team are fighting Origin for the number one seed going in to the World Championships. Coming into the playoffs, Huni, Rekkles, and the rest of Fnatic were undefeated throughout the entire EULCS summer split with a record breaking 21-0 record going into the grand finals against Origin until the unthinkable happened. Led by veteran player xPeke, Origin defeated Fnatic not just once but twice. The two teams traded games until the series was tied at 2 a piece. Game 5 begins and everything is on the line for the number 1 seed. The pressure is on for Fnatic's star, Top Laner Huni, after struggling all series long. 15 minutes into Game 5, kills are in favor of Fnatic as they get an easy kill on Origin ADC Niels.

Fast forward 20 minutes as Fnatic ADC Rekkles starts pushing up top lane and secures a tower and an enemy inhibitor. Origin is now on defense as minions start to pour into the crumbling base. Both teams are anticipating the 3rd baron to spawn, which is a critical objective to capture. As Baron spawns Fnatic quickly kills it while Origin doesn't even attempt to stop them. Here we go, Fnatic is now pushing into the enemy base with a team fight sure to break out. Fnatic Jungler Reignover goes down and so does Huni—Fnatic is forced to back off once again and secure the much safer Dragon. Moments later a huge fight breaks out, Fnatic grabs 4 crucial kills. and begins to disassemble Origins base and destroy the nexus to secure the number 1 seed for World Championships.

Fnatic Celebrating
Team captain YellowStar raising the Flag of Fnatic after victory against Origin

All in the same day, Fnatic come out on top League of Legends and CSGO once again. During this year Fnatic signed former Team Malaysia as the organizations first foray into Dota 2 and placing 15th during The International 5 in August, although they did place 3rd in June at the joinDOTA MLG tournament and 8th at ESL One Frankfurt. It doesn't stop there either as Fnatic also owns a pro Smite Team with an all time record of 23/13, as well as a championship winning Battlefield 4 Team.

Fnatic have also tried to explore the world of competitive fighting games. In 2012, Fnatic signed Pro fighting game veteran and 3 time EVO Champion, Carl "Perfect Legend" White. In 2013 Perfect Legend finished 13th for Injustice: Gods Among Us at EVO and 5th in Mortal Kombat 9. The following year at EVO 2014 better results were shown as he placed 9th in Injustice and 4th for MK. Perfect Legend then resigned from Fnatic in the same year after a short term with the organization, and since then Fnatic has not sponsored any other Pro fighting game players

As the League of Legends team quickly bounced back from the 2014 World Championship disaster, the new roster looks to capture their second World Championship title. While they have tasted victory in other tournaments and seasons, Fnatic last captured a World Championship title in 2011. So as we approach the 2015 World Championships, Fnatic has a massive road ahead to secure that trophy needing to go through top teams from around the globe. With a legendary roster behind them, a World Championship victory is a very real possibility.

What the future holds is unknown, but what we do know is that Fnatic is an organization that has rarely seen failure and their reign in all of eSports doesn't seem to be stopping any time soon ...

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