Leading professional and EIZO sponsored eSPORTs team featured in three finals at World’s Largest Digital Festival in Jönköping, Sweden. Read more in fnatic's press release below!
FNATIC Dominates Dreamhack 2011 Winter Finals
November 27, 2011, London, UK— Dreamhack Winter 2011 has been a virtual show of force for Fnatic, who dispatched 18 players in 5 different games for the Swedish event. Every one of them progressed to the playoffs which resulted in three Grand Finals and two Dreamhack Winter titles!
Sending 18 players to any event will be a brave decision. Sending the same amount of players to Jönköping, Sweden for the biggest Local Area Network Party in the entire world is completely nuts. That is however exactly what Fnatic did for Dreamhack Winter 2011, an event with over 12,000 computers connected to the network at the same time. This Gaming- and eSports-mecca of the world has become the epitome of professional gaming in the last two years, hosting eSports tournaments with a combined prize purse of over SEK 1,160,000 ($168,000) handed out over the four days the event runs.
Fnatic's decision to dispatch players from five of their professional gaming divisions paid off, as every single one of them progressed to the playoffs of their respective tournaments. In itself that is an impressive feat, but the amazing performance from the Black and Orange players doesn’t stop here. Out of the five teams attending, three got into the Grand Finals in their respective tournament - winning two Dreamhack Winter 2011 CHAMPIONSHIPS!
The Heroes of Newerth team was the first to clinch a victory for Fnatic, as the reigning champions took their third Dreamhack title in a row, adding to their fantastic DH Winter '10 and DH Summer '11 victories. For their efforts they took home a hefty SEK 150,000 ($21,700).
Next up to enter a Grand Final in the “DreamArena Extreme” was the Fnatic DotA 2 team. The Serbian players had been picked up by Fnatic only a few weeks prior to the event and proved an instant impact as they sealed a 2nd place and SEK 25,000 ($3,600) in their first performance under the Fnatic banner.
The talking point of the day however, was the iconic Fnatic Counter-Strike team's victory in the CS 1.6 tournament. Long time captain and legendary Fnatic player Patrik 'cArn' Sättermon had never won a Dreamhack tournament before - despite a long and glorious career. After a hard fought group stage and bracket run, the Counter-Strike team would face off against their Swedish countrymen, “Lions”, in the Grand Final. Here Sättermon's experience proved a key factor in clinching the first ever Dreamhack CS 1.6 championship for Fnatic. The victory nets the team SEK 100,000 ($14,400) as well as the pleasure of winning the biggest event on the team’s home soil.
From the other teams our Romanian StarCraft 2 player Silviu 'NightEnD' Lazar impressed the most. His stellar play saw him progress from two consecutive group stages, despite being an underdog, and battle his way through the playoff bracket to a 3rd-4th place. In one of the fiercest tournaments of the year, Lazar's run didn't go unnoticed amongst the fans, and along with the SEK 35,000 for his final position, the Romanian Protoss is sure to have scooped up a bunch of new fans along the way.
The last two Fnatic’s at Dreamhack Winter was StarCraft 2 player Yoan 'ToD' Merlo and Quake-Live ace Kévin 'Strenx' Baéza who ended 9-16th and 5-8th in their respective tournaments.
About Fnatic: The Fnatic team is an ambitious and highly successful electronic sports organisation, which supports the world's greatest gamers. After being crowned as Electronic Sports Team of The Year twice. Fnatic has achieved over 60 victories in major international tournaments and are acknowledged worldwide for their famous and charismatic Swedish Counter-Strike 1.6 team, hugely successful League of Legions squad, and Heroes of Newerth, and former PainKiller World Tour Champion, Sander "VoO" Kaasjager and Laurens”Lauke” Pluijmaekers, former Olympic Champion in Unreal Tournament. Fnatic currently have squads in Counter-Strike 1.6, , Call of Duty, Quakelive, Heroes of Newerth, Starcraft 2, Halo, League of Legions, and Cod X. We have over time established ourselves as a vibrant, well-coordinated outfit with a clear vision for the future of competitive electronic sports, commonly referred to as "esports". For more information, please visit
www.fnatic.com or Check out our video - What is Esports and Fnatic!
About Dreamhack: Dreamhack is the world’s largest digital festival and holds the official world record as world’s largest LAN party in the Guinness Book of Records. During 2009 Dreamhack reached over 200.000 unique visitors with our live activities around the World. Dreamhack holds several festivals each year, BYOC Qualifiers and expos. The Spring Season ends with the Season Finals at Dreamhack Summer and the Fall Season ends with Dreamhack Winter. The major festivals take place during 4 days, 24-7. Dreamhack holds Esport tournaments for all audiences ranging from casual and fun to real hard core gamers, attracting professional players. The final for the tournaments is played in front of a large audience on the main stage of a custom arena named the “DreamArena Extreme”.
