Gfinity is teaming up with esports' Fnatic for 2018 London games

Gfinity plc, an international esports entertainment group, has announced that esports franchise, Fnatic, is to join Gfinity Elite Series Season Three, due to start in March 2018.

Based in London, Fnatic is a professional esports organisation and said to be a leading franchise in global esports with teams competing in over 20 global competitions each year.

Founded in 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.

Neville Upton, chief executive of Gfinity, said: “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.

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

Fnatic has played a big part of the esports revolution with its teams winning around £6m in prize money. It is the first new team to be announced as part of Gfinity’s Elite Series expansion which sees 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. Teams will compete for a prize pool in excess of £250k.

Prior to Fnatic’s opening FIFA 18 match, global amateur players can 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, to be chosen by one of the 10 teams with each drafting two players to become part of their active roster. The teams will compete in a six-week regular season, then - if lucky - over a two-week period from the Gfinity Esports Arena in London.

Patrik Sattermon, CGO and co-owner of Fnatic, said: “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.”