Johnathan Wendel (born February 26, 1981), more commonly known by his online alias Fatal1ty (pronounced "Fatality"), is an

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value. With this definition, entrepreneurship is viewed as change, generally entailing risk beyond what is normally encountered in starting a business, which may include other values th ...

and former professional

esports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

player of the

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the pl ...

titles '' Quake'' and ''

Painkiller An analgesic drug, also called simply an analgesic (American English), analgaesic (British English), pain reliever, or painkiller, is any member of the group of drugs used to achieve relief from pain (that is, analgesia or pain management). It i ...

.'' He was an early pioneer of competitive gaming and was once considered one of the best professional gamers in the world. He founded Fatal1ty Inc., which licenses the Fatal1ty

brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

to gaming accessory manufacturers.

Playing career

Fatal1ty turned professional in 1999 at age 18 playing ''

Quake III Arena ''Quake III Arena'' is a 1999 multiplayer-focused first-person shooter developed by id Software. The third installment of the ''Quake'' series, ''Arena'' differs from previous games by excluding a story-based single-player mode and focusing prima ...

''. Wendel has won about 450,000 in cash and prizes from professional competitions, mainly in the Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL). In addition to receiving numerous product partnerships with his company Fatal1ty Brand (Fatal1ty, Inc.), he has been featured in mainstream newsprint publications such as ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'',

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also re ...

, and the

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

. He has also been featured on ''

60 Minutes ''60 Minutes'' is an American television news magazine broadcast on the CBS television network. Debuting in 1968, the program was created by Don Hewitt and Bill Leonard, who chose to set it apart from other news programs by using a unique styl ...

''. He has a training regimen where he practices at least eight hours each day, sometimes more. Wendel has been a successful competitor in many

games. He debuted as a professional gamer in October 1999 by placing 3rd in the ''

'' tournament at the CPL's FRAG 3 event. He has competed in tournaments with '' Counter-Strike'', ''

Call of Duty ''Call of Duty'' is a first-person shooter video game Media franchise, franchise published by Activision. Starting out in 2003, it first focused on games set in World War II. Over time, the series has seen games set in the midst of the Cold W ...

'' and ''

'' which he won with his team clan Kapitol at the first-ever CPL Teamplay World Championships (FRAG 4). Most of his successes have been with one-versus-one

deathmatch Deathmatch, also known as free-for-all, is a gameplay mode integrated into many shooter games, including first-person shooter (FPS), and real-time strategy (RTS) video games, where the goal is to kill (or "frag") the other players' characters a ...

games including ''

'', ''

Unreal Tournament 2003 ''Unreal Tournament 2003'' is a first-person arena shooter video game developed by Epic Games and Digital Extremes, and published by Infogrames under the Atari brand name. The game is part of the ''Unreal'' franchise, and is a sequel to 1999's ...

'', and ''

''. During his career, he has won a total of twelve world championship titles, including four player of the year awards with the Cyberathlete Professional League and one with the

World Cyber Games The World Cyber Games (WCG) is an international esports competition with multi-game titles in which hundreds of esports athletes from around the world participate in a variety of competitions also known as Esports Olympics. WCG events attempt to e ...

. On March 13, 2003, Wendel was profiled on an episode of

MTV MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...

's ''

True Life ''True Life'' is an American documentary television series that aired on MTV from March 31, 1998 to June 21, 2017. Each episode follows a particular topic, such as heroin addiction as in the first episode – "Fatal Dose". The show is created by ...

'' reality television series. The episode documented his life and how he prepared for the Cyberathlete Professional League's

Winter Winter is the coldest season of the year in polar and temperate climates. It occurs after autumn and before spring. The tilt of Earth's axis causes seasons; winter occurs when a hemisphere is oriented away from the Sun. Different cultures ...

2002

. Among those featured alongside Wendel in the

professional gaming Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

industry were his friends Phil "shogun" Kennedy, and Brian "astro" Lewis, who were also very well known in the

circuit. Wendel was the

spokesman A spokesperson, spokesman, or spokeswoman, is someone engaged or elected to speak on behalf of others. Duties and function In the present media-sensitive world, many organizations are increasingly likely to employ professionals who have receiv ...

of the now defunct Championship Gaming Series and had put aside actively competing in 2007. Wendel retired from competition in 2008. Wendel held the record for most prize money won in all of

until he was overtaken by Korean ''

StarCraft ''StarCraft'' is a military science fiction media franchise created by Chris Metzen and James Phinney and owned by Blizzard Entertainment. The series, set in the beginning of the 26th century, centers on a galactic struggle for dominance am ...

'' player

Lee Jaedong Lee Jae-dong (born 9 January 1990), who plays simply under the name Jaedong, is a South Korean professional '' StarCraft: Brood War'' player and former ''StarCraft II'' player, playing most recently for team Evil Geniuses prior to his StarCraft ...

near the end of 2013.

World championships

* CPL: 4 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2005) * WCG: 1 (2000)

Post-retirement

Wendel started a business, Fatal1ty, Inc., that sells his brand of gaming mousepads, "FATpads". He later expanded this into other gaming products through a business partnership with

OCZ Technology OCZ was a brand of Toshiba that was used for some of its solid-state drives (SSDs) before they were rebranded with Toshiba. OCZ Storage Solutions was a manufacturer of SSDs based in San Jose, California, USA and was the new company formed after ...

, Creative Labs, ASRock,

Universal Abit Universal ABIT Co., Ltd (formerly ABIT Computer Corporation) was a computer components manufacturer, based in Taiwan, active since the 1980s. Its core product line were motherboards aimed at the overclocker market. Abit experienced serious finan ...

, GamerFood and Southern Enterprises, Inc. to create

motherboard A motherboard (also called mainboard, main circuit board, mb, mboard, backplane board, base board, system board, logic board (only in Apple computers) or mobo) is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expand ...

s, energy snacks,

sound cards A sound card (also known as an audio card) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under the control of computer programs. The term ''sound card'' is also applied to external audio ...

, gaming desks,

computer mice A computer mouse (plural mice, sometimes mouses) is a hand-held pointing device that detects two-dimensional space, two-dimensional motion relative to a surface. This motion is typically translated into the motion of a pointer (user interface ...

headphones Headphones are a pair of small loudspeaker drivers worn on or around the head over a user's ears. They are electroacoustic transducers, which convert an electrical signal to a corresponding sound. Headphones let a single user listen to an au ...

, and

power supplies A power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The main purpose of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, current, and frequency to power the load. As a res ...

under the ''Fatal1ty'' name. In honor of his contributions to video gaming, Wendel was awarded the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award by

eSports Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

. He was inducted into the

International Video Game Hall of Fame The ''International Video Game Hall of Fame'' (IVGHoF) is a planned museum to be operated in Ottumwa, Iowa, United States. Ottumwa considers itself as the "Video Game Capital of the World" as the city was home to the Twin Galaxies arcade which ...

in August 2010 and holds a spot in the

Guinness Book of World Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a reference book published annually, listing world ...

. In July 2012,

Topps The Topps Company, Inc. is an American company that manufactures chewing gum, candy, and collectibles. Formerly based in New York City, Topps is best known as a leading producer of American Football Card, American football, Baseball card, baseb ...

released their 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball set, which includes autographs and worn shirt memorabilia cards of Wendel.

Personal life

Wendel was born on February 26, 1981, to James and Judy Wendel and grew up in

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

Missouri Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...

. Fatal1ty played on his high school

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent ( singles) or between two teams of two players each ( doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball ...

team. His parents divorced when he was 13. He moved to

Las Vegas Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

in 2006 and lived on the

Las Vegas Strip The Las Vegas Strip is a stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard, Las Vegas Boulevard South in Clark County, Nevada, that is known for its concentration of resort hotels and casinos. The Strip, as it is known, is about long, and is immediately south of ...

as of 2014.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Wendel, Johnathan 1981 births Living people American esports players 21st-century American businesspeople People from Independence, Missouri People from Kansas City, Missouri People from Overland Park, Kansas Quake (series) players Painkiller players People from Las Vegas Team Razer players