Fatal1ty Story

Who knew that at age 19, I would be a World Champion PC gamer. When I was 13, I actually played competitive billiards in professional tournaments and won four or five games off guys who played at the highest level. I actually thought of making a career of it, but at that young age situations change rapidly. Because I’ve been blessed with great hand-eye coordination and a grasp of mathematics (an important element in video gaming) I gravitated to that activity.

GOING PRO

I started professional gaming in 1999 when I entered the CPL (Cyberathlete Professional League) tournament in Dallas and won $4,000 for coming in third place. Emerging as one of the top players in the United States, a company interested in sponsoring me flew me to Sweden to compete against the top 12 players in the world. I won 18 straight games, lost none, and took first place, becoming the number one ranked Quake III player in the world in the process. Two months later I followed that success by traveling to Dallas and defending my title as the world’s best Quake III player, winning the $40,000 grand prize. From there I entered competitions all over the world, including Singapore, Korea, Germany, Australia, Holland and Brazil in addition to Los Angeles, New York and St. Louis.

WINNING STREAK

I was excited to showcase my true gaming skills when defending my title as CPL Champion of the year at the CPL Winter 2001 because I would be competing in a totally different first person shooter (fps) game, Alien vs. Predator II. I won that competition and walked away with a new car. The next year I won the same title playing Unreal Tournament 2003, becoming the only three-time CPL champion of the year. And I did it playing a different game each year, something no one else has ever done and a feat of which I am extremely proud.

At QuakeCon 2002, I faced off against my rival ZeRo4 in one of the most highly anticipated matches of the year, winning in a 14 to (-1) killer victory. Competing at Quakecon 2004, I became the World’s 1st Doom3 Champion by defeating Daler in a series of very challenging matches and earning $25,000 for the victory.

Since then Fatal1ty has traveled the globe to compete against the best in the world, winning prizes and acclaim, including the 2005 CPL World Tour Championship in New York City for a $150,000 first place triumph. In August 2007, Johnathan was awarded the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award in the four year history of the eSports-Award for “showing exceptional sportsmanship, taking part in shaping eSports into what it is today and for being the prime representative of this young sport. He has become the figurehead for eSports worldwide”.