Word: fatal1ty
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Professional video gamer Jonathan (Fatal1ty) Wendel likes comparing himself to Tiger Woods, Michael Jordan and Tony Hawk. Wendel doesn't have a 350-yd. drive or a turnaround jumper, but he has dominated the PC-gaming field, winning 12 championships and collecting more than $500,000 in prize money and well over $1 million beyond that in sponsor deals. To prepare for big matches, Wendel says, he imports sparring partners from as far away as Finland, avoids alcohol and caffeine and runs a couple of miles a day. "Fitness is crucial," he says. "It's all about...
...likening himself to His Airness, Wendel is thinking past the rec room and into the boardroom. What Jordan did for sneakers, argues Wendel, Fatal1ty (pronounced fatality) can do for the sound card. To that end, Wendel has partnered with manufacturers like Creative, XFX, Abit and Zalman to put his stamp on a hardware line he claims will give aspiring gamers an edge. He and his associates will claim about $5 million in royalties for 2006. "I want to create a Fatal1ty brand that will last," says Wendel. He's talking not just mouse pads and motherboards but even apparel...
Twitch athletes like Fatal1ty are trying to make a claim on sports programming and its rich merchandising spin-offs. There's already a built-in audience, and it's global. In 2006, combined sales of video and PC games hit $13.5 billion, a record for the industry and more than $4.5 billion above Hollywood's total box-office receipts. Competitive gaming is currently insignificant in that universe, with sales between $15 million and $20 million, according to industry consulting firm Parks Associates. But big players are entering the market. In January, DirecTV announced the formation of its own Championship Gaming...
When your parents told you that playing video games would never lead to anything, they should have hedged their warning: video games won't lead to anything unless you're really, really good at them. Johnathan Wendel, better known on the Internet by his gaming handle, Fatal1ty (note the 1 for extra cybercred), is that good. He's so good that at 22 he is among the first people in the history of civilization to make a living as a professional video-game player...
...When Fatal1ty got involved with Quake, an ultraviolent action game you can play online, his price tag got bigger. Quake had an active, organized Internet community that held real-world tournaments. By 1999, when Wendel was 18, he was splitting his time among gaming, attending school and waiting tables. Wendel's parents weren't quite as excited about his career as he was--"I think I spent most of my teenage life grounded from the computer," he says--but he convinced them the old-fashioned way: with cold cash. When he placed third at a major tournament in Dallas...