Jonathan Wendel or “Fatal1ty” as he is called in the gaming world is the world’s best-known, professional gamer. In his seven year professional career he has won more competitions and prize money than any other gamer, including 12 major championships
and 11 World titles on 5 different games. You might think he has the easiest job on the planet …but the truth is that pro gamers like Jonathan practices 8-10 hours a day, sometimes even longer, when in preparation for upcoming tournaments. Not only that, Jonathan has been athletic his entire life, he incorporates physical training into his schedule by running 3-5 miles per day as part of his routine, and continues to play tennis regularly, a sport in which he was considered one of the best high school players in Kansas City.

I had the opportunity to ask Jonathan a few questions and first I wanted him to tell us a bit about why he chose to be a professional gamer?
“Well, gaming was always a hobby for me since I was a little kid. I didn't play in my first gaming competition until I was 13 when I entered the Blockbuster console tournament, playing NBA Jam, Clay Fighter and Sonic the Hedgehog 3. I was mainly just an NBA Jam guy, and I took 1st in my city for that game. With the other games I finished in the top 6 or so and it placed me at #3 for my city. After that, I continued to play games casually and got really addicted to playing First Person Shooters (FPS), of which Wolfenstein 3D was my very first.

At the age of 13 or so, I became a die hard for Doom/Doom2 with my 3 neighbours. So I started playing Doom a lot and eventually, when I turned 15, Quake came out, and basically blew everyone away!

With internet capability to play anyone in the world, gaming became way more attractive, mainly because of the competition. I started playing Quake whenever I had a moment free, and went to my first FPS competition for Quake 1 in 1996 where I won 4 or 5 local tournaments as well as a regional event in Wichita, Kansas with about 130 competitors. I was 15 and never really thought of gaming as a profession, just an easy way to win some cool prizes and get free internet cafe time to play games and have fun with friends.

When I turned 18, I realized there were tournaments being hosted by the CPL at least twice a year, offering $10,000 for 1st place and prize money all the way down to the top 8 or 16. I knew there was a great opportunity to win some money on the side while I worked as a waiter at a golf course and went to school part time.

I won $4,000 at my first pro tournament. My dad and I were blown away by winning this kind of money for a 3-day competition. Soon after that, I got invited to go to Sweden to represent USA, all expenses paid, where I beat the top 12 players in the world by winning 18 games straight and losing none. I was stoked about winning this tournament and, shortly after I won, I heard about sponsorships being available to top gamers, so I pursued it, and got an offer for about $30,000/year + all expenses.

I figured, why not take a shot at this, and see where it ends up? I knew there was about $100,000 in prize money available in the year 2000 if I won pretty much every tournament, so I took a break from school to give it a shot. I figured if I didn’t win any money, I’d still have $30,000 from the sponsor to pay for school. But honestly, I thought I had a great chance to win a lot of tournaments, which I did, winning almost every tournament I entered and about $110,000 my first year as a pro gamer. After that first year, I realized all I wanted to do was game, and keep winning. Travelling the world to play games is a dream come true for me. I can't think of anything better than gaming for a living!”

Page 2 >>

(C)PCgaming.nu 2006/Text: Magdalena Larsson