Johnathan Wendel

Wendel had played first-person shooters (FPS) since he was young, such as Doom in the early 1990s. Generally, after he had finished playing regular sports in high school during the day, he would go online and play hours of Quake at night. He would also play Quake at LAN parties and local tournaments in the midwest. He met another player, Eric "Batch" Paik, and the two would meet every weekend to play Quake. At one of their meetings, Wendel had beaten Paik nine or 10 times in a row. Paik, who had had just returned from a tournament win in London, told Wendel that he should consider playing in larger tournaments.[2] After graduating high school, Wendel lived with his father. He was taking computer classes and working a part-time job but wanted to play video games professionally. He made a deal with his father — if he did not make any money in his first major tournament, he would go back to school.[3]

Wendel after winning the Doom 3 Championship at QuakeCon 2004

Wendel began his professional esports career playing the first-person shooter Quake III Arena. His first major tournament came in October 1999, at age 18, when he spent $500 to travel to a Cyberathlete Professional League (CPL) tournament in Dallas, Texas. He placed third at the tournament, earning US$4,000 in prize money. In 2000, he travelled to Sweden to compete in his first international tournament, where he went 18–0. He competed in several major CPL events in Europe, Asia, and the United States in 2000, and went on to win the 2000 World Cyber Games in Seoul. In total, he earned $110,000 from Quake III tournaments. That same year, he also earned $25,000 from corporate sponsorships and endorsements from companies, such as Razer.[1][4]

In 2001, Wendel won a custom-painted $40,000 and a Ford Focus after winning the 2001 CPL Wold Championship in the game Aliens vs. Predator 2.[5][6] However, after failing to qualify for the 2002 World Cyber Games, Wendel the transitioned to playing a different game, Unreal Tournament 2003, for the 2002 CPL Winter in Dallas. Wendel ultimately won the event and the $10,000 grand prize.[1][7] Wendel then became the world's first Doom 3 champion QuakeCon 2004, which came along with a $25,000 grand prize.[8][9]

In 2005, Wendel switched to playing Painkiller for the 2005 CPL World Tour, a year-long tournament series across four continents that would culminate in a grand finals in December at the Nokia Theater in Times Square, New York.[1] At the grand finals event, which was in a double-elimination tournament format, Wendel reached the finals after dropping to the lower bracket, where he faced the world's top Painkiller player Sander "Vo0" Kaasjager. Needing to win two best-of-three matches, since he had already lost once in the tournament, in order to win the event, Wendel ultimately won four straight games, winning the event and $150,000 for taking first place — the largest esports cash prize in history.[10] The win made it his fifth world title of his career, with all five of them being in a different FPS game.[11]

Wendel moved on to Quake IV in 2006. At the World Series of Video Games (WSVG) Finals tournament, a double-elimination tournament, Wendel advanced through the lower bracket to reach the finals, where he faced Johan "Toxjq" Quick, who had never lost a best-of-three series. Needing to win two best-of-three matches, Wendel won the first one, becoming the first player ever to do so. However, Quick won the second match, and Wendel finished the event in second place.[7]

The WSVG Finals was the last competitive tournament Wendel played, choosing to retire from professional play due to his "genre of choice" being on the decline.[7] He has played in a few events since 2006, such as a 2007 exhibition match, a Guinness World Record event in 2008/09, and a 2012 show match in Taiwan.[12]

In total, Wendel earned a record $450,000 in prize winnings from seven different games throughout his career. The record stood for over six years after his retirement, until StarCraft player Lee "Jaedong" Jae-dong broke it near the end of 2013.[13]

In August 2007, Wendel was awarded the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award at the Leipzig Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany, for "showing exceptional sportsmanship, taking part in shaping eSports into what it is today and for being the prime representative of this young sport. He has become the figurehead for eSports worldwide".[14][15] In August 2010, he was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame as a part of its first class of enshrinees.[16] He was inducted into the Esports Hall of Fame in November 2018.[17] He received another Lifetime Achievement Award from the Esports Awards in October 2020.[18]

Wendel was born on February 26, 1981, to James and Judy Wendel and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri.[19][5] His parents both worked in auto factories, with his father running a pool hall as well. His parents divorced when he was 13.[3] Wendel played on his high school tennis team.[20]

He moved to Las Vegas, Nevada in 2006 and lived on the Las Vegas Strip as of 2014.[7]

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