Fnatic

Fnatic was founded in July 2004 by Sam and Anne Mathews, with them both based in London at the time, and where Fnatic still holds its headquarters. Due to their acclaim and impact within the community, the team also has a base in Sweden. Thanks to the dynamic leadership of Sam Mathews and his partner Anne, this is one of the most well respected and valued esports teams within the industry.

As you’d expect with a team of this calibre, Fnatic competes in events on a global scale, partaking in events surrounding the likes of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends, and Dota 2, as well as a few others. Given the scale of their successes, it’s no surprise that Fnatic takes part in many events around the world on an annual basis, visiting over 25 different countries each time.

The Fnatic Team

Taking into account what we already know, it makes sense that the Fnatic team often changes its roster. When things don’t quite work out, usually a roster shift can bring fresh changes to the organization. One of the most recent changes was the departure of Olofmeister in August 2017. Golden stepped in to take his place, and since then, the Fnatic lineup has consisted of KRiMZ, JW, flusha, Golden, and Lekr0. The Fnatic roster also has Jumpy at their side as a coach.

Currently, Golden plays the in-game leader role for Fnatic. JW players as the primary Awper, whilst both Lekro and Flusha take the rifler role. KRiMZ is often seen playing the support role.

If you want to see behind the scenes or learn more about the team, all players have their own accounts on Twitter.

Why Fnatic is One of the Best

Fnatic has long been one of the biggest names in Counter Strike: Global Offensive. They have been competing in the scene for 14 years, and have since branched out to other games.

Currently, the Fnatic roster is known to be one of the best in the scene thanks to their lineup of star Swedish players. The core three players KRiMZ, JW, and Flusha have played together for years, now. Their team chemistry and cohesion is incredible. Alongside the veteran players, we also have Lekr0 and Golden. Whilst both of these players aren’t as well known and may not carry as many medals under their names, they still have plenty of experience within the industry.

It’s not just the CS:GO Fnatic roster that makes them such a popular organization. Fnatic has lots of experience with other esports, most notably Dota and League of Legends. One of the most obvious reasons for them being so prominent within the esports industry that they amassed many awards in a short period of time, with their first being the esports Team of the year in 2006. As if they one time wasn’t enough, they then won this award again in  2009, providing further evidence of their determination to reign supreme within the industry.

Between the periods of 2006 and 2009, Fnatic also started attracting their first high profile sponsors, MSI and SteelSeries. Due to these new sponsorships, the team was able to enter the Korean gaming industry with more ease, resulting in them becoming the first foreign group to operate within their own house in Seoul, North Korea. This was a major coup, and one that no other team had managed previously, further heightening the reach of Fnatic. Since then, Fnatic has attracted a whole raft of support from a number of major organisations, with their current sponsors including that of Fnatic Gear, Monster, MSI, and Seagate.

Achievements

Fnatic has a string of impressive achievements worth boasting about, with some of them dating back several years, such as in 2009. During this time, they won the Intel Extreme Masters III, with them then going on to claim first place four years down the line, this time at the DreamHack Winter 2013 competition.

This ability to place first continued, with them gaining top position a total of five times throughout 2015, including the ESL One Katowice 2015, the ESL ESEA Pro League Season One Finals, the ESL One Cologne 2015, and the ESL ESEA Pro League Season Two Finals. This was the golden season of Fnatic in CS:GO. It was safe to say at this point that Fnatic was the best in the world, and nobody could stop them.

In 2016 and 2017, Fnatic’s domination came to an end. They were still a top tier team, but their major-winning spree at the top ended. Fnatic mostly struggled after going through some particularly big roster changes.

It wasn’t until early 2018 that Fnatic started to see some notable results. Recently, Fnatic reached first place in the huge WESG 2017 World Finals, taking home $800,000. Fnatic also came first at IEM Katowice 2018, taking another $250,000 after beating current top-1 team FaZe clan in a very close best of five final.

In summary, Fnatic’s achievements in and out of CS:GO has helped the organization to become one of the leading companies paving the way for the future of gaming and esports.

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Previous Report:

Fnatic is one of the oldest esports organizations in Europe. Founded in 2004, it currently fields competitive teams in League of Legends (LoL), Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), Dota 2, Vainglory, Paladins, Rocket League, FIFA, and Heroes of the Storm.

Fnatic in League of Legends

Fnatic have been a part of the League of Legends scene since season 1. Back then, they’d participated in countless tournaments, consistently securing high-place finishes against the strongest lineups in the world. In their home region, Fnatic made a name for themselves as one of the best teams in Europe.

Once the EU LCS came around, Fnatic continued their reign in the new format. They dominated the competition, winning five out of ten trophies and becoming the most accomplished European team to date. And even though their legacy was recently challenged by G2 Esports, there was only one split when Fnatic didn’t place in the top-4.

Fnatic Roster

When it comes to roster management, Fnatic stick with their legacy players through thick and thin. However, they don’t hesitate to make changes in other positions, and many new faces have joined the organization since its inception. Fnatic’s current roster is sOAZ in the top lane, Broxah in the jungle, Caps in the mid lane, Rekkles in the AD carry role, and Hylissang in the support position.

Fnatic Playstyle

Fnatic’s playstyle has evolved over time. Their most recent approach was all about splitpushing and teamfighting. They use their solo laners as lightning rods to absorb pressure while their superstar AD carry takes over the bot lane and—eventually—the game. And while this playstyle can work wonders, top-tier teams have learned to exploit it. The became glaringly obvious in 2017, and you can expect Fnatic to come up with new strategies for the upcoming EU LCS season.

Fnatic International Results

As one of the best teams in Europe, Fnatic have taken part in many international events. In fact, their victory at the Riot Season 1 Championship makes them the only Western team to ever win a World Championship. Unfortunately, this achievement is diminished by the low level of competition at that tournament.

Still, Fnatic have taken part in five out of seven World Championships. Their 2017 Worlds run will go down in history for them making an unprecedented comeback from a 0-3 deficit in the group stage and qualifying for the Semifinals.

Fnatic are also notable for their 2015 Mid-Season Invitational showing where they challenged the Korean powerhouse SKT T1 in a close Semifinals series. In the early days of League of Legends, Fnatic have attended countless IEM and Dreamhack events.

Fnatic In Dota 2

Fnatic began its ventures into the world of Dota 2 in 2012. Back then, the team was based in Europe and was comprised of super-star players who had moved to Dota 2 from Heroes of Newerth. The team were off to a rocky start, only winning their first Minor, the DotaCinema Rosh Pit months after their formation. However, by late 2012 – early 2013, the team had picked up the pace and began seeing some great results across the board in almost every tournament they entered. They took part in The International 2013 and came 7th/8th place after only performing decently in the months leading up to the event. This European roster continued playing in Majors, Minors, Qualifiers and Premier tournaments, although their performance was seemingly inconsistent, winning events such as the MLG T.K.O Europe but placing 13th/14th at The International 2014.

Their defeat at The International 2014 hit the team hard, who had thus far never made any roster changes. In late 2014, the players began moving to other teams and by December, their last player had swapped to another team, leaving Fnatic Dota 2 roster completely empty. It wasn’t until June of 2015 that Fnatic would once again compete in Dota, this time playing from Southeast Asia. Fnatic had picked up what was formerly known as Team Malaysia, consisting of big names such as Mushi, Ohaiyo and kYxY.

The team had not been playing under Fnatic for long before they entered The International 2015, and they placed 13th/16th at the event. The team went through several roster changes during 2015 and 2016, although they managed to do well in Premier tournaments such as The Shanghai Major and The Manila Major, where both times they placed 5th/6th and even came in 4th place at The International 2016.

Further roster changes were made in 2017 and the team struggled to get great results throughout the year, coming 17th/18th place at The International 2017 and 7th/7th at ESL One Hamburg. In late 2017, The team once again went through a significant roster change, this time picking up big name players such as the Swedish player ‘pieliedie’, Philipine ‘Abed’ as well as the Canadian player ‘EternaLEnVy’. Since forming, the team has placed 7th/8th at the DreamLeague Season 8, 2nd at the Dota Summit 8 Major and came 1st place in two SEA qualifiers. In early 2018, the team also picked up super-star offlane player and The International 2015 winner ‘UNiVeRsE’. The current roster seems to be doing well, although they are very new and have not played in many significant tournaments yet.

Fnatic Dota 2 Roster

The current Fnatic Dota 2 lineup is as follows:

• Jacky ‘EternaLEnVy’ Mao
• Abed ‘Abed’ Yusop
• Saahil ‘UNiVeRsE’ Arora
• Djardel ‘DJ’ Mampusti
• Johan ‘pieliedie’ Åström

Their Coach is Adam ‘Adam’ Erwann Shah bin Akhtar Hussein, and they currently have Swedish player Steve ‘Xcalibur’ Ye.

Fnatic Dota 2 International Results

The Fnatic Dota 2 team has a total lifetime winnings of roughly $2.600.000. The team has achievements such as 3rd place in the StarLadder i-League StarSeries Season 2, 4th place at The International 2016 and 2nd in the Dota Summit 8 Major.