The eSports team Fnatic (occasionally stylised as fnatic) was born in 2004 and is a world leader in eSports, including games such as LoL, DOTA 2 & Halo. For the past few years Fnatic has dominated the new world of electronic sports (eSports). Since then, fnatic’s elite pro gamers have won thousands of tournaments, over 10m USD in price money (across over 20 games) which is more than any other eSports team. Sam Mathews is the man behind wheel, he is founder & full-time chairman of fnatic eSports team, and is catapulting eSports out of the basements and onto the high street.
Recently an eSports shop in trendy East London has been been made a reality by Mathews. Dubbed the Bunkr, the popup offering Shoreditch will be operating up until Christmas 2016 over a 4 week window. For those of you who have never experienced Shoreditch it is London’s uber cool hang out – Shoreditch is London’s beating creative heart and is an interesting choice for the pop up venue. E2 (the Shoreditch postcode) is home to hipster hang out Shoreditch House, Boxpark, House of Hackney, NikeLab and Conran’s restaurant Counter Albion. It is fair to say that Shoreditch, whilst bearing the brunt of London’s gentrification, still has a certain edgy grit about it which oozes a creative energy not found in London’s west end and Soho anymore.
Fnatic’s pop up store in London’s hip district Shoreditch is a cunning marketing strategy. The fnatic brand nowadays is more than an eSports team, it is a full on brand and is a risk which has proven to pay off for Mathews. Now he hopes the eSports concept store in London will become a talking point and one day a chain of establishments.
Fnatic’s pop up ‘Bunkr’ will not only sell T’s, onsies, hoodies, caps, hardware like keyboards, mice and mousemats – but will also feature a VR setup and a fully stocked bar.
Mathews was set on starting not only an eSports team, but a movement and a brand. He entered eSports before anyone was talking about eSports. The future looks bright for eSports and for Mathews. You can view Fnatic jobs here