Jonathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel

Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, born February 26, 1981 in Independence, Missouri, is a professional electronic sports player and entrepreneur who is recognized by the International Video Game Hall of Fame as an industry pioneer who has contributed greatly to the development of video gaming as a professional sport.

Mr. Wendel has reportedly won approximately US$500,000 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, The New York Times, Forbes, and the BBC World Service. He has also been featured on 60 Minutes. He has a training regimen where he practices at least eight hours each day, sometimes more.

Mr. Wendel has been a successful competitor in several first-person shooter games. He debuted as a professional gamer in October 1999 by placing 3rd in the Quake III Arena tournament at the CPL's FRAG 3 event. He has competed in tournaments with Counter-Strike, Call of Duty and Quake III Arena 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 games including Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament 2003, and Painkiller. During his career, he has won a total of five world championship titles, including four with the Cyberathlete Professional League[3] and one with the World Cyber Games.New news has shown that Wendel has started competing in Team Fortress 2 under an undercover cover name.

On March 13, 2003 MTV featured Wendel on the True Life series. It was filmed in Kansas City, Kansas; San Antonio, Texas; and Dallas, Texas. The episode documented his life and how he prepared for the Cyberathlete Professional League's Winter 2002 Unreal Tournament 2003. Among those featured alongside Wendel in the professional gaming industry were his friends Phil "shogun", and Brian "astro", who were also very well known in the professional gaming circuit.

Mr. Wendel launched a business, Fatal1ty, Inc., selling his own brand of gaming mouse pads, "FATpads". He later expanded this into other gaming equipment through a business partnership with Universal abit, Creative Labs and XFX to create motherboards, coolers, sound cards, video cards, computer mice, computer cases, headphones, power supplies, and even clothes bearing his moniker.

Mr. Wendel was the spokesman of the now defunct Championship Gaming Series. Currently Mr. Wendel is not competing.

Mr. Wendel was awarded the first Lifetime Achievement Award in the four-year history of the eSports Award. According to the Esports Award Organization, he "claims the honor for showing exceptional sportsmanship, taking part in shaping eSports into what it is today and for being the prime representative of this young sport".

Additionally, Mr. Wendel attended the 2008 E for All which prompted the organizers of Penny Arcade Expo to publish a parody of the press release stating he would not be welcomed at PAX 2008."

Among his successful contest victories are:

Aliens versus Predator 2- 1st CPL World Championship ($40,000, Ford Focus).

Doom 3 - 1st QuakeCon 2004 ($25,000).

Painkiller - 2nd CPL Summer Championships 2004 ($5,750); 4th CPL Turkey March 26, 2005 ($5,000); 6th CPL Spain May 1, 2005 ($2,500); 2nd CPL Brazil May 28, 2005 ($10,000); 2nd CPL Sweden June 18, 2005 ($10,000); 1st CPL Summer Championships 2005 ($15,000); 2nd CPL UK September 4, 2005 ($10,000); 1st CPL Singapore October 16, 2005 ($15,000); 2nd CPL Italy October 22, 2005 ($10,000); 5th CPL Chile October 30, 2005 ($3,500); 1st CPL NYC World Tour Finals 2005 ($150,000); QuakeWorld (6th CPL 4-Year Anniversary Event 2001 ($1,000).

Quake III Arena - 3rd Frag 3 1999 ($4,000); 1st XSR Invitational 2000; 1st RazerCPL Tournament April, 2000 ($40,000); 1st BattleTop Universal Challenge July 22, 2000 ($15,000); 1st World Cyber Games Challenge October, 2000 ($25,000); 1st CPL Australia ($10,500); 3rd CPL Holland; 2nd QuakeCon 2001 ($10,000); 2nd CPL Brazil.

Quake 4 - 4th WSVG Kentucky June 18, 2006; 4th WSVG Intel Summer Challenge July 9, 2006 ($6,500); 9–12th QuakeCon August 5, 2006; 5th WSVG London October 8, 2006; 3rd Digital Life October 15, 2006 ($2,500); 5th World Cyber Games October 19, 2006; 2nd WSVG Finals New York, December 10, 2006 ($10,000); 1st Championship Gaming Invitational Los Angeles, December 17, 2006.

Mr. Wendel has also won four world championships in competitions with CPL: (2000, 2001, 2002, 2005) and one world championship with the WCG (2000).