How eSports have changed: looking back with Fatal1ty

The eSports scene is now a billion-dollar industry, but that wasn't always the case. As it's grown, new leagues and competitions have formed and different games have come into focus.

Republic of Gamers spoke to eSports professional Johnathan Wendel, better known by his gamertag Fatal1ty, about the way eSports has changed over the last two decades. Wendel went pro back in 1999 playing the first-person shooter Quake, and won approximately $450,000 over the course of his career.

More recently, Wendel founded his own company, FATAL1TY, which sells branded accessories and hardware, and starred as a gaming legend on Endemol Shine Beyond’s digital show Legends of Gaming.

Do you fancy yourself as a potential eSports legend in the making? If so, you're going to need some quality gear in order to keep up with the competition, like the ROG Strix GL702, which has been selected as the official gaming laptop for The International 6 (TI6). It offers exceptional performance thanks to its Core Intel i7 quad-core processor, 8GB DDR4 memory and the latest dedicated graphics allowing you to react as fast as possible.

Fatal1ty: Legends of Gaming Profile by Smasher Network

How has eSports and pro gaming changed over the past 17 years?

It’s changed so much… Gamers can make money in so many different ways now compared to when we were starting out. Back when eSports was just taking off, people were doing it mostly part time and winning whatever they were giving away. A lot of times the prize money wasn’t big enough and really the only thing to take note of was Thresh winning a Ferrari back in 1997. So eSports was definitely a part time gig for almost everyone as the ecosystem couldn’t support the gamers.

In 1999, I finally saw the opportunity to become the first full-time professional gamer as the prize money was finally reaching a point where you could essentially live off of the tournament winnings. At that point I just ran with it. It was all about winning for me… Today, gamers can cash in on tournaments, YouTube, Twitch, sponsors and more. It’s amazing to see people even making a full career out of being announcers or creating technology around eSports. It really is the perfect time to be in eSports right now!

One of the biggest things to change was Twitch and streaming. How has that impacted the scene?

It's basically lead to this phenomenon where gamers are becoming entertainers, and are able to make a living from playing games where they don’t necessarily have to be the best in the world anymore. I think it has opened so many doors for so many different types of players in all genres! Now it's viable to compete, play, entertain and just be yourself.

It makes me happy every day to see the growth of eSports and all the ways people can make money in this growing economy.

It seems that shooters used to dominate eSports, but now team-based games like Dota and League of Legends are huge, as well as the card game Hearthstone. Why do you think there has been that change in focus?

Shooters are still here with CS:GO and Call of Duty, but yes, definitely Dota and League of Legends have been taking it to another level. As for the reason why this shift to MOBA games over the shooter games as the favorite, it could come down to the fact MOBA games are more friendly to play with friends and also being able to choose your class and easily pull off special moves makes it attractive to the masses.

In my personal experience, I also enjoy playing MOBA with my friends. We laugh a lot and yell at each other, but it's all in good fun. I feel Overwatch and Battleborn are capturing that same kind of feel that MOBA games has, and it will be interesting to see how those play out in the future of eSports.

You broke into eSports playing Quake III Arena. What are your memories of the game and why did you gravitate towards it?

It was always my dream to travel overseas to play in a tournament, win a world championship and be respectful in the scene by showing good sportsmanship. That was all I really wanted when I first started playing Quake III Arena. Before that I played a lot of Quake I around the Midwest and won every tournament I entered on LAN. One of my friends told me how good I was, and I didn’t really know if I was that good or not… He convinced me to travel to a tournament down in Texas and I won $4,000 at my very first big professional tournament.

After that, I knew I belonged here and I could take this all the way with future tournaments coming up. So I decided to take up my passion full time. Duelling to me was so satisfying… When you win, you know you've won, and when you lose, you know you've lost… 1-v-1 duelling is so final… That’s what I loved about it. When you win a world championship in a 1-v-1 game, it’s just a rush of energy and excitement that goes through your body. Like you're on top of the world and you don’t know when your feet will ever hit the ground… It was a rush.

Have you heard about 'Quake Mission Pack No. 3: Dimensions of the Past' which is coming out this year for the original game? Are you excited to play or do you think the Quake gameplay has aged too much?

You know, I briefly heard about this at QuakeCON 2016 this year… I think I might have to check that out! Quake brings back so many good memories of when I was in high school. We only had about six people in the whole high school who had a PC and knew how to get online to play Quake! Those were the days before Xbox!

 

By Luke Graham

Read other content about Fatal1ty:

A life in the day of a pro gamer - Fatal1ty

Here's how to be become a professional gamer (according to a pro)

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