Fnatic (pronounced "fanatic"; also stylised as fnatic or FNATIC) is a professional esports organisation headquartered in London, England. Founded on 23 July 2004, it has players from around the world competing in several games.
Fnatic's League of Legends team competes in the League of Legends EMEA Championship (LEC) and is one of the most successful organisations in the league. The team won the first League of Legends World Championship in 2011, and it held the record for most LEC titles from 2011 to 2020.
Fnatic's Counter-Strike team, which has traditionally been located in Sweden, won the first ever CS:GO Major in 2013 and two more between 2013 and 2015. After a series of poor results dating back to the start of 2021, Fnatic made a move towards an international roster for the first time since 2013.
The organisation has claimed more than 200 championship victories across 30 different games since its inception in 2004. According to Forbes, Fnatic is worth $260 million () and is among the top 10 most valuable esports companies.
History The organisation was founded on 23 July 2004 by Sam Mathews and Anne Mathews. After playing on Fnatic's Counter-Strike team for several years, Patrik "cArn" Sättermon became the chief gaming officer of Fnatic in 2012. Wouter Sleijffers replaced Anne Mathews as CEO in 2015, while Sam Mathews is the board chairman.
Between 2008 and 2009, Fnatic was sponsored by MSI and SteelSeries, spurring a temporary name change to FnaticMSI. On 1 June 2011, Fnatic partnered with EIZO to launch their gaming monitors into the market.
In 2006, Fnatic acquired a World of Warcraft team, Fnatic. WoW. Returning to represent Fnatic in the World of Warcraft 3v3 community was players TooGood, Vo0, and Ztrider. The Fnatic. WoW division won top finishes in events including BlizzCon, Intel Extreme Masters (IEM) and Major League Gaming (MLG).
In 2007, Fnatic acquired a DotA team, Fnatic. DotA, represented by Ritter "Ritter" Rusli, Romi "melen" Gunawan, Ariyanto "Lakuci" Sony, Sugiarto "BaHaMuT" Cahyadi, Jeffry "Neo" Lu. They were formerly known as XcN DotA.
In 2008, Fnatic picked up a new DotA team with a roster of Edvin "Kwom" Börjesson, Jonathan "Loda" Berg, Rasmus "Misery" Berth, Rene "Kebap-" Werner, and Aringazin "Aidar" Aidar.
In 2010 FnaticMSI.HoN was restructured with a roster of Johan "N0tail" Sundstein, Kalle "Trixi" Saarinen, Henrik "Freshpro" Hansen, Jascha "Nova" Markuse, and Tal "Fly" Aizik.
In January 2012, Fnatic took on RaidCall as a sponsor. With the new title sponsor, Fnatic expanded into South Korea and became the first non-Korean esports team to acquire a professional gaming house in Seoul.
In 2012, Fnatic picked up the former GamersLeague Dota 2 team in order to compete with other top teams. The team placed fourth in ESWC, but soon after, the team parted ways with Fnatic.
In August 2014, Fnatic partnered with Luke Millanta to create a collection of cosmetic Counter Strike: Global Offensive weapon skins.
In 2015, Fnatic announced a return to Dota 2, acquiring and sponsoring Team Malaysia.
On 1 October 2015 sports betting website Dafabet became a sponsor of Fnatic.
On 23 March 2017, Fnatic announced that it would be making a one-off return to Heroes of Newerth with an all-Swedish roster made up of Makke, iNsaniA, Xibbe, Boxi and miCKe, and it would compete at the HonTour Season 5 World Finals in Bangkok. On 2 April 2017, Fnatic became the champions of HonTour Season 5, defeating [MiXs] Phoenix MiXs on the grand finals.
On 6 October 2017, Fnatic joined the competitive Rocket League scene after acquiring the former roster of Leftovers.
On 12 April 2018, Fnatic joined the competitive Rainbow Six Siege scene after acquiring the former roster of Mindfreak.
The company has its headquarters in London, near the Silicon Roundabout at Old Street, with a full-time senior management team including a CEO, CGO, Sales Director, Accounts Director and Head of Creative Services.
Fnatic also runs an independent digital agency, Sannpa, for businesses looking to be involved in esports.
In April 2019, Fnatic raised $19M in Series A funding round and restructured its leadership as it plans a major expansion in Asia and North America.Hilary Russ, "Esports organization Fnatic raises $19 million for big expansion", Reuters, 30 April 2019
In October 2019, Fnatic acquired Indian PUBG Mobile team Xspark, consisting of Sc0utOP, Ronak, Paritosh, Owais and InYoDream. Fnatic disbanded the team in March 2021.
In November 2019, Fnatic announced it had entered into a partnership with Japanese company Sanrio to collaborate on content and merchandise around its Hello Kitty brand.
In October 2020, Fnatic announced a multi-year global partnership with Chinese-based global consumer electronics and home appliances market leader, Hisense. The same year Fnatic signed a multi-year partnership with BMW.
In March 2021, Fnatic announced a renewal of partnership with a global online gaming entertainment service "LeTou" and would serve as official sponsors for their DOTA 2 squad.
In November 2022, Fnatic launched its own music label, Fnatic Music. The announcement coincided with the album Fnatic Island Vol. 1.
On 6 May 2024, the Esports World Cup Foundation, funded by the Saudi Arabia Public Investment Fund and organizers of the Esports World Cup tournament series, announced the 30 organizations (known in the ESWC as Clubs) who would make up the Club Support Program, with Fnatic being one of them. This program gives teams a one-time six-figure stipend if an organization is willing to enter new esports as well as additional funding each year if they drive viewership and fan engagement to the Esports World Cup.
Current divisions
Counter-Strike
Counter-Strike: Source and 1.6 Fnatic entered the Counter-Strike competitive scene in 2004, when the team was founded by Freek "FraK" Tammelling. The initial roster, led by Benjamin "diGitaL" Hildén, managed to win CPL Singapore 2005 but struggled to make much of an impact at other international events. At the beginning of 2006, Fnatic released the entire line-up except for sniper Harley "dsn" Örwall, who was tasked to assemble a new roster. Örwall recruited Patrik "cArn" Sättermon, the in-game leader of Eyeballers; Oscar "Archi" Torgersen, from Team GoN; and Begrip duo Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg and Kristoffer "Tentpole" Nordlund. This line-up would go on to win many major events in 2006, culminating with a 1st-place finish at CPL Winter 2006. In 2011, Fnatic's Counter-Strike team placed top three in many events with their newly acquired player, Michael "Friis" Jørgensen. This simultaneously led to dropping many uncontracted players such as Qet (Counter-Strike), Lauke (UT) and Vo0 (Q3).
cArn gained a reputation as one of Counter-Strike's premier in-game leaders and strategy callers from 2006 to 2012 due to his ability to lead several completely different Fnatic rosters to major tournament wins. However, in March 2012, he announced his surprise retirement before the IEM Season VI World Finals, going on to become the first chief gaming officer for Fnatic. Xizt took on the role of the in-game leader, replacing cArn with Finn "karrigan" Andersen, another Danish player. The new team won their first major LAN event at Copenhagen Games 2012. On the same weekend, FnaticRC.aLive won his first ever major tournament at IPL4 Las Vegas.
After Fnatic won 2012 DreamHack Summer and the Swedish Championships, Rasmus "Gux" Stahl retired from Counter-Strike, leaving an open spot in Fnatic. On 26 June, Fnatic announced that Martin "trace" Heldt would join the team. In August, Richard "Xizt" Landstorm left the team to play CS:GO for NiP; Emil "FYRR73" Karlsson was announced as his replacement.
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive When Fnatic switched to Counter Strike: Global Offensive, they became one of the top teams in the world. In order to complete the roster, Fnatic announced that Xyp9x and JOKERN would join them to compete in Counter Strike: Global Offensive. The team was able to finish in the 3rd/4th position of the EMS Season 1 Finals.
In late 2013, Fnatic won the first ever major tournament in Counter Strike: Global Offensive, under the guidance of their new leader, Markus "pronax" Wallsten, taking out the team Ninjas in Pyjamas (NIP). In 2014, Fnatic took in 2 ex-LGB players, Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer and Freddy "KRIMZ" Johansson. They went on to win ESL One Katowice 2015 after defeating NIP, and on 24 August 2015, Fnatic won ESL One Cologne 2015, after defeating Team EnVyUs. Because of this roster's back-to-back major wins and eleven other international titles, some consider this Fnatic team to be the strongest roster ever assembled in the history of CS:GO.
In November 2015, after a few disappointing tournament performances, pronax decided to take a hiatus from competitive CS:GO. He was replaced with Dennis "dennis" Edman from international team G2 Esports. In December 2015, Fnatic beat NIP 2–1 and secured their second Fragbite Masters win, the other being in season 3. Fnatic regained the #1 position in HLTV's team rankings after the tournament, and remained the #1 ranked team in the world until 18 April 2016.
In April 2016 olofmeister suffered a wrist injury, and John "wenton" Eriksson took his place temporarily.
On 15 August 2016 Fnatic announced that Robin "flusha" Rönnquist, Jesper "JW" Wecksell, and KRIMZ would be transferred to GODSENT and the team would be welcoming Simon "twist" Eliasson and Jonas "Lekr0" Olofsson in return. Wenton, who was already a substitute for Fnatic, completed the line-up.
On 20 August 2017 Fnatic announced that olofmeister would depart from Fnatic to join FaZe Clan, and dennis would also leave Fnatic and join GODSENT; they were replaced by Maikil "Golden" Selim and Lekr0.
In September 2019, flusha and Golden, two previous squad members, rejoined the team. Following this roster move, Fnatic enjoyed some success, until at the start of 2021 there were more changes, with flusha stepping down from the team's active roster, to be replaced by the 21 year old talent Jack "Jackinho" Ström Mattsson. after this change, the team had a slew of losses, falling over the next six months to a near all-time low of position #65 on the HLTV team ranking. As a result of this, the decision was made to change things up, with the roster becoming, for the first time, an international one following the addition of UK players Alexander "ALEX" McMeekin and William "mezii" Merriman and the benching of JW and Golden.
This change was positive at first for Fnatic, leading to good performances at ESL Pro League XIV, and allowed them to regain a spot amongst the top 20 HLTV teams; however, following a bad performance at IEM Fall 2021, where they failed to win a single match, Fnatic failed to qualify for the 2021 Stockholm Major, and shortly afterward, Jackinho was benched from the team. Owen "smooya" Butterfield was signed to replace Jackinho on a 3-month trial. The addition of smooya marked the first time in the history of Fnatic fielded a British majority line-up. After poor results at Katowice 2022 in February, smooya was benched and replaced by the Romanian sniper Iulian "regali" Harjău, shortly before qualification for the PGL Major Antwerp 2022.
In March 2022, Brollan who had been with Fnatic since 2018 and during that time made the HLTV top 20 players twice, was transferred to NIP. Valentin "poizon" Vasilev and Peppe "Peppzor" Borak were added to the roster to replace smooya and Brollan, although poizon only on trial and Peppzor temporarily moved up from the academy team. After not achieving desired results, ALEX and poizon were benched and Peppzor was returned to the Fnatic Rising academy team, leaving only KRIMZ and mezii in the team.