Fnatic.com - Professional Gaming News

FnaticMSI SHOP SUPPER SUMMER SALE!

fams — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:26:00 +0200

It's that time of year again; where the weather is hot and people lose their minds. Which is lucky for you guys as all of the SteelSeries and SLAPPA gear in the FnaticMSI Shop have been put on sale at extra low prices! UP TO 70% OFF ON MANY ITEMS: eg. SteelSeries 3H from €40 to €18.99, SteelSeries 5h USB from €89.99 to €64.99. Click Full Story for more information!

CoD4 TDM is back!

bidy — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 16:00:00 +0200

Our ever popular public servers are slowly returning under the new hosting of our brand new sponsors, FSHost. Today is the turn of our CoD4 Team DeathMatch Server. The server can be found on the new ip: 212.224.78.176:28960 and will be running the ProModLive game modification with a crash, district, backlot and strike map rotation. Our CoD4 players will regularly be using the server to warm up before their matches. So Goodluck and have fun, you might just bump into one of our stars.

DOTA Cup Signups extended to 64 teams

fams — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:59:00 +0200

Since we have had an overdose of DOTA signups we are extending the amount of teams from 32 to 64. As a result, this one day cup has now turned into a 2 weekend cup (This Sunday, July 12th and next Sunday, July 19th)

Help to build gaming products and win!

Pidi — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:20:00 +0200

After joining forces two months ago, FnaticMSI and SLAPPA are proud to announce their first contest. Both sides have been working hard to build the absolute best gaming cases and bags since then and now look for your input. YOU have the opportunity to participate in the development of a gamer case or bag! All you have to do is to head over to http://www.slappa.com/contests/fnatic.html and share your thoughts on the perfect gamer product that fits your needs. Ten SLAPPA prizes will be given away among all entries this month. For further information about the contest, please click 'Full Story'.

In The Spotlight: Bidy

devine — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:39:00 +0200

FnaticMSI is pleased to announce the second edition of its In The Spotlight feature, a set of quickfire questions aimed at the people who work hard behind the scenes: the staff!

Fnatic PLAY DOTA Cup this Sunday

fams — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:25:00 +0200

After a one week hiatus the PLAY.FNATIC.COM Cup series is back, and this Sunday we will be continuing on with DOTA. We will be holding a 32 team DOTA cup on Sunday, July 12th starting at 11 CET For more information click ‘Read More’

DOTA Cup Admins wanted!

fams — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:00:00 +0200

After a one week hiatus the PLAY.FNATIC.COM Cup series is back, and this Sunday we will be continuing on with DOTA. We are in need of admins to help run this event; check inside for details.

Twitter winners!

bidy — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 20:00:00 +0200

Recently we asked all our twitter followers why they think fnaticMSI are the best, and why they will be voting for us in the eSports Award 2009. Today voting has closed and so has our competition. "Read more" to see if you were among judged the best entries.

SteelSeries Sweepstakes

bidy — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 16:53:00 +0200

Blizzcon epitomises all thing Blizzard. It is the be all and end all of events for WoW, WC3, StarCraft and Diablo fans. For the second year running, our sponsors, SteelSeries are running a competition to win an all-expenses-paid trip for two to BlizzCon 2009. Intrigued? "read more".

North America falling behind?

fams — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 11:15:00 +0200

North America has been trailing behind Asia and Europe for quite some time now. With the demise of many large scale LAN events, the death of many leagues, teams and sponsors backing out of North American E-Sports; things are not looking good. However the question is not ‘Is North America behind the rest?’ it is ‘Why is North America behind the rest?’. There is no question that we are facing depressing times, especially in the E-Sports industry, but why is North America so much worse off than other parts of the world in the E-Sports industry? North American E-Sports is behind the rest because of the way it is setup compared to Europe and Asia. In terms of Internet infrastructure, population density, targeted demographics, game selections, and the level of maturity and professionalism within top tier E-Sports organizations. With Europe, their population density is much higher than North Americas. As well, with so many countries and competing languages, opportunities for leagues such as the ENC are actually possible. This combined with their internet infrastructure makes it so these leagues and teams are possible. People from Sweden can easily play people from Italy with little latency issues. This combined with fewer supported games allows for the supported games to bring in more stable amounts of money. Organizations are actually able to maintain a professionally run organization, they can hire a team without having to worry about whether as soon as this season of ‘insert league here’ is over, will they have to drop the team because the game they specialize in is no longer played. Teams are able to develop brands, work alongside their teams for a lengthy period of time enabling them to build something tangible. In Asia, the Internet infrastructure is poor in most cases, however the population density and lower cost of living cancels that out. In China specifically, most families cannot afford a computer and all of the peripherals to accompany it; this forces kids to attend their local LAN centers to compete with other kids. This makes ideal situations for sponsors looking for a stable environment at a low cost to them. With the lower cost of living, the sponsors don’t need to shell out as much money to teams and events to entice kids to come out. As well, peripheral manufacturers such as Steel Series can still market and sell their products to these kids under the reasoning that, the kids won’t have to spend thousands of dollars over the years (computer, computer upgrades, good internet, etc.) they can just spend a little money one time for peripherals of their preference and still compete regularly. This combined with the amount of people, and the technology boom in Asia makes it the perfect breeding ground for something like E-Sports. The current demographic in Asia is a technological consumer sort. With most youth buying and using the latest technology, gaming is right there with it; offering a new medium of advertising to these techno-hungry kids. Another large reason as to why Korea and China are so powerful in E-Sports (SC and Wc3) is because of the way it is setup in terms of game selection. Not only is their population density ideal, but they don’t have 10 different games to worry about marketing through. They have one game, with that one game; they hit the majority of their E-Sports scenes. In Korea and China, you don’t have to worry about which event to support, because you won’t have to choose between a Wc3, SC, Quake, CS, CSS, COD, etc. You have one game, SC for Korea and Wc3 in China. Last but not least, in Asia –Korea especially- the way team organizations are run is professional. Teams do not rely on sponsorships to fund them, the teams are actual corporations themselves; self sustaining teams. Teams aren’t reliant on sponsors to help out, as well, they aren’t struggling to please sponsors or worried about losing that all important paycheck as they provide it themselves. In North America however, the Internet infrastructure is terrible. Teams from the East coast can’t compete fairly against teams from the West coast. On top of that, the population density is terrible; this combined with a poor demographic makes PC based E-Sports a nightmare in North America. Most people think kids who use a computer to play games are the stereotypical nerd that lives in his mother or grandmothers basement. It is not socially acceptable to play video games unless it is a console, which is why the only stable organization of sorts is on the console side of things with the MLG. Not only is the mainstream acceptance of North America E-Sports poor, but so is North American E-Sports itself. With the lack of professionalism from organizations hitting an all time high in the past 3 years, we have also seen the demise of all major events (CPL, WSVG, Digital Life, CAL, CGS, etc.) and lo and behold, the same people were behind most of those events. As well the team organizations are run poorly in terms of what they offer and how they are managed. When problems arise they throw money at them instead of good management. Game selections come into play here quite a bit as well; games constantly go in and out of style each month. Teams then do not do the proper research on the market and invest in a so called ‘popular teams’ and are stuck with these kids on a 6 month contract, when their game is already dead 2 months into the contract. Organizations also do not take the time to invest more than money into their teams and their scene. The notion of hiring mercenaries is very popular in America with teams hiring the ‘best’ team and then letting them do whatever they feel like. The teams don’t market the players or help develop them or their scene and are then left twiddling their thumbs wondering what just happened and why are they stuck with a crappy team for 4 more months which isn’t even earning money. Obviously each area has its own set of situations that makes E-Sports as successful as it is in those areas. It seems after being dealt the wrong cards over and over and over again North America finally has a chance to fix things.

ESL EMS: fnaticMSI.CoD4 2:0 Dignitas

bidy — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:53:00 +0200

Its Winner Brackets Final time in the ESL EMS CoD4 tournament. fnaticMSI.CoD4 are playing versus Dignitas to progress to the grand final and the chance to win 1500€. "Read more" for further information on the match.

In The Spotlight: Roychez

devine — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:33:00 +0200

FnaticMSI is pleased to announce the creation of its In The Spotlight feature, a set of quickfire questions aimed at the people who work hard behind the scenes: the staff!

G-League: fnaticMSI.F91 to playoffs, JayStar, RushGoon and LBH out

StreeT — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:32:00 +0200

The groupstage is over for the Starcrafters in the G-League and the Warcraft III competition is nearly at the playoffs stage. With four representatives in the Starcraft tournament, fnaticMSI expects a lot, but after many games played, only one player managed to continue to the playoffs while tree of our players have to finish the competition. Read more inside.

FnaticMSI.CS to attend WCG Sweden 2009

devine — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:10:00 +0200

FnaticMSI can announce that its Counter-Strike 1.6 team will be attending the World Cyber Games Sweden Qualifier 2009, set to take place between 13-15th August 2009.

F91: We can take on the Koreans soon

Marksman — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:45:00 +0200

Sun Yi 'F91' Feng might be the best non Korean Starcraft player at the moment. The 26-year-old is known in the community for his unorthodox builds and places top 3 at almost every event he attends. Sun Yi joined Fnatic.MSI back in late 2008, when he and his team were announced as the official Starcraft squad. Considered as one of the best, the team has enjoyed great success in the past few months. fnatic.com sat down with team captain Sun Yi to talk about his recent results, his task as team captain and the Korean superiority in Starcraft.

Vote fnatic, win prizes

bidy — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:14:00 +0200

It's that time of the year again, every organisation is fighting for votes to be crowned the website with the best eSports coverage for 2009 and we here at fnaticMSI are very proud to announce that we have received a pre-nomination for the category. To celebrate we will be holding a competition. "Full Story" for further information on how you can win.

ESEA: FnaticMSI.CSS secure fifth win in a row

fams — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:56:00 +0200

After a lack luster season for the CSS team, things have finally turned around for the boys from Denmark as they are on a 4 game winning streak. Back to Back matches on Nuke and Train have left the boys with a positive 9-6 record. fnaticMSI.CSS has now moved up 16 places in the rankings from 21 to 5. Click 'Full Story' to see today's match info and more.

Blogs galore!

devine — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:34:00 +0200

It's summer time, the weather is hot and we're sure you're all topping up that FnaticMSI trademark orange tan! However, there is still enough time to read some of our blogs written over the past week by both our players and staff!

GeT_RiGhT talks to WinOut.net

Pidi — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:45:00 +0200

Fnatic.MSI´s Counter-Strike player Christopher 'GeT_RiGhT' Alesund, who was recently nominated for the Regional eSports Player of the Year 2009 award, sat down with Duncan 'Thorin' Shields from WinOut.net for an detailed interview. Christopher discusses his way to the top by commenting on the teams he was a part of and what is so special about the Fnatic.MSI team. He also talks about the team´s aggresive style of play, idols he had when he was younger, the rivalry with SK-Gaming and much more. Please click 'Full Story' for a snippet of the interview.

Happy Birthday roychez!

devine — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 23:57:00 +0200

On 29th June, 1990, Roald "roychez" van Buuren was born. Approximately 18 years later, he joined the FnaticMSI organisation as a Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare writer. Little did he know that within the space of a year, he would be promoted to Editor-in-Chief, overseeing the news that gets published onto our website as well as dealing with staff. Roald modelling the new Fnatic Apparel Roald has been a valuable asset to the organisation since his arrival and it is without his hard work and drive that our website wouldn't be running accordingly. Although a day late, we still wish to congratulate Roald on reaching the still young age of 19 and hope that he continues to prosper within our organisation, setting an example to others. We wish Roald the best of luck and a very happy birthday!

FnaticMSI.CoD4 4th in Cadred rankings

devine — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:11:00 +0200

The FnaticMSI Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare team have been ranked 4th in the Cadred European Call of Duty Rankings for June 2009. Click Full Story for more!

ESEA: FnaticMSI.CSS versus Stofftiere Online

devine — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 23:53:00 +0200

Earlier tonight, FnaticMSI's Counter-Strike: Source team defeated Stofftiere Online from Austria in the ESEA Europe CSS Open Division Playday 8.

DUTTDUTT win Play.Fnatic CS 1.6 Tournament

Pidi — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 18:00:00 +0200

The first edition of the Play.Fnatic Counter-Strike Tournament has come to an end yesterday. It saw the Swedish team DUTTDUTT (Dennis, hyvlarn, malaria, kvicken, hollie) beating their countrymen from frozen hellguardz (vuggo, denwin, xeron, marvel, chaoos) after three exciting maps. The team around former Begrip player Sam 'kvicken' Alvandpour have secured themselves the first place and $250 prizemoney, what can even be doubled up simply by playing on Bestpoker.com. Demos from the Grand Final will be available soon. With the tournament running smoothly, we want to thank all volunteers who dedicated their time to make this tournament possible. Also a big thanks to Bestpoker.com, the main supporter of Play.Fnatic.

ESL EMS: fnaticMSI vs Giants (aka FRORN) *WIN

roy_chez — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 20:33:00 +0200

The play-offs of the ESL Major Series are fully under way and tonight a big match will be played. FnaticMSI.CoD4 will face the French Team Giants, or FRORN as they go through live now.

Storm the Front Online Tournament # 2 is coming up

roy_chez — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 19:11:00 +0200

CM Storm's first tournament of Storm the Front ended up being a huge success, with more than 100 registering. Due to this success, another season is announced!