Fnatic franchise to join Gfinity Elite esports series

Esports entertainment group Gfinity announced on Monday that “world-renowned” esports franchise Fnatic would join its Gfinity Elite Series season three, which was due to commence in March 2018.

The AIM-traded company said Fnatic is a professional esports organisation headquartered in London, United Kingdom, which had established itself as one of the leading franchises in global esports with teams competing in more than 20 global competitions each year.

Founded on 23 July 2004, the team has players from around the world across a variety of games, such as FIFA, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends and Dota 2.

Earlier in 2017, Fnatic signed an exclusive partnership with Italian football club, AS Roma.

Fnatic, which has been a huge part of what Gfinity termed the “esports revolution” with teams winning more than $8m in prize money, was the first new team to be announced as part of Gfinity's Elite Series expansion, which was seeing the number of teams increase from eight to 10.

Gfinity recently added EA SPORTS FIFA 18 to the line-up of titles, joining Rocket League and Street Fighter V, with teams set to compete for a prize pool in excess of £0.25m.

“Having established the Elite Series as one of the leading esports tournaments in the world, we couldn't be more excited by expanding and bringing in a team of Fnatic's calibre,” said Gfinity CEO Neville Upton.

“With their inclusion, an already competitive roster and more announcements to come, this will be our most action-packed season to date.”

Prior to Fnatic's opening FIFA 18 match, amateur players from around the world were being invited to sign up for free to compete in the Challenger Series to earn a place in the Elite Draft.

After six weeks of online competition, the top 40 players will enter the draft in the hope of being selected by one of the 10 teams, with each drafting two players to become part of their active roster.

The teams would then compete in a six-week regular season in a bid to make the playoffs, which will be played over a two-week period from the Gfinity Esports Arena in London.

“We have followed the Elite Series closely for some time and have been thoroughly impressed, in terms of the tournament but also in both the professionalism and vision of Gfinity's team,” said Fnatic co-owner Patrik Sattermon.

“The new opportunities for our existing FIFA and Rocket League rosters are very exciting and a return to the fighting game scene with Street Fighter V is something we very much look forward to.”