Gfinity has today announced that the well-known esports organisation Fnatic will join the Gfinity Elite Series for season three, which gets underway on March 2nd 2018.
Fnatic is the first new team to be announced as part of the Elite Series’ expansion which sees the number of teams increase to 10.
Gfinity recently added FIFA 18 to the line-up of titles joining Rocket League and Street Fighter V – and teams will compete for a prize-pool in excess of £250,000.
Gfinity confirmed to Esports News UK that there will be no CSGO in Season 3, but the tournament provider is running a separate $50,000 CSGO Winter Series instead.
Prior to Fnatic’s opening match in Season 3, Gfinity is asking amateur gamers around the world to sign up to compete in the Challenger Series to earn a place in the Elite Draft.
“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.”
Patrik Sattermon, Fnatic
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, each drafting two players to become part of their active roster.
The teams will compete in a six-week regular season in a bid to make the play-offs, which will be played over a two-week period from the Gfinity Esports Arena in London.
“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 Neville Upton, CEO of Gfinity. “With their inclusion, an already competitive roster and more announcements to come, this will be our most action-packed season to date.”
Patrik Sattermon, CGO and co-owner at Fnatic, added: “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.
“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.”
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
