How a gaming 'Fnatic' built an eSports empire

Mathews (left) - pictured at the 2004 World Cyber Games in San Francisco - founded Fnatic to represent the eSports community.

The clock is ticking down, the score is all wrong and the majority of the 16,000-strong crowd starts to cheer against them. The world's best team is up against it. 

 

Led by the world's best player, they somehow pull off a comeback -- of course, they do -- and defeat the challengers on their way to victory and another trophy. Sound familiar? Not quite.

Olof "olofmeister" Kajbjer: "It's weird. You walk around and people want to take pictures and you don't really understand it."

 

The game is "Counter Strike." The team, Fnatic. Welcome to the world of eSports.

Origins of an eSports juggernaut

Sam Mathews is one of the major players in this digital realm, which has a global audience of more than 290 million people -- more than the NHL, according to research firm Newzoo. 

 

He set up Fnatic in 2004, having sold his car and invested £5,000 ($7,200) in sending the team to an eSports event in Las Vegas.

 

"It was thought upon as odd the first time I did it," he recalls. "But when they won £20,000 ($29,000) it was thought of as not odd and suddenly like, 'Whoa, how did they win?'"