SK Gaming was formed in 1997 as a German Quake clan named Schroet Kommando by seven young people who all lived in the town of Oberhausen, among three brothers: Ralf "Griff" Reichert, Tim "Burke" Reichert and Benjamin "Kane" Reichert, supported by Musa "Kila" Celik, Kristof "Speed" Salwiczek, Carsten "Storch" Kramer and Sven "Ramses" Tümmers.[1] Initially, the clan was called Schroet Kommando; according to Ralf "Griff" Reichert, clan mate Celik (a.k.a. Kila) used to shout "Schrööt!" (literally meaning "shrapnel") when he took the double-barreled shotgun; they decided to incorporate this into their name and named their clan "Schroet Kommando" which translates into English as "Shrapnel Commando". This has been changed and the clan now refers to itself as SK Gaming, stating that this is their name now, and not an abbreviation for the original name.[2]

Initially, the house of the Reichert family was the SK headquarters. At first, Schroet Kommando played mainly Quake, Quake 2 and Quake 3 Arena. SK became one of the first clans to feature an all-female team. A major step forward towards professional gaming was the entry of Andreas "bds" Thorstensson in the early 2000s. He made SK the first clan to charge payment for premium services ("SK Insider", a virtual marketplace where paying members could download demos, mods and add-ons better and earlier than others, talk directly to SK gamers etc.),[3] SK became a Counter-Strike-oriented clan. Their major international successes came when they took the players of the successful Swedish Counter-Strike clan Ninjas in Pyjamas (NiP for short) into their organization. The SK Counter-Strike team have won most of the major international tournaments at least once, and have been a dominant team in the Cyberathlete Professional League. Other SK Gaming teams are also notably successful in their respective games.

On February 1, 2003 SK Gaming became the first club in FPS gaming to contract their players when SK Sweden became contractually bound to the clan.[4] Having begun contracting their players, SK also set other precedents regarding contracts: on May 18, 2004 they were the first team to receive a fee for a player transfer after rivals Team NoA bought SK.swe player Ola "elemeNt" Moum out of his contract.[5]

At the beginning of the 2005 season, the Counter-Strike players decided not to renew their contracts and to re-form Ninjas in Pyjamas, because of the distribution of the prize money and disagreements with the management.[6] However, later some of the original players returned to the club in summer 2005. [6]

The 2006 season brought no successes to the Counter-Strike team. Most notably, the team failed to qualify for the Electronic Sports World Cup, in which Sweden was represented by rivals fnatic and Ninjas in Pyjamas. The team did manage to qualify however for the KODE5 finals, now unsuccessful at beating their two rivals. At the KODE5 finals, they won two matches and lost to team MiBR in the group stages. They then lost to wNv in the single elimination round, placing 5th-8th overall. Success did come for the Quake 4 squad, as Swedish star player Johan "Toxic" Quick managed to win eight out of the ten major tournaments this year, including four out of five World Championships. Also the FIFA 06 squad had a successful year, the team managed to win the prestigious ESL Pro Series twice, and German player hero won the World Cyber Games championship.

Shortly before the release of the Sunwell Plateau in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, SK Gaming gained partnership with Curse, one of the highest-ranked guilds at the time [1]. However, on October 1, 2008, their PvE team was dismissed due to differences in interests and on November 10, it was announced that the PvE team would merge with Nihilum, which was leaving Mousesports as well.[2] [7]On July 28, 2008, SK Gaming dismissed its Call of Duty 4 team. [3]

SK has been dominating the 6.52e dota scene for 2008.

[edit] Business model

As of 2008, SK Gaming is organised as a so-called Gesellschaft mit beschränkter Haftung. The owners of SK Gaming are Andreas "bds" Thorstensson and Alexander "TheSlash" Müller-Rodic, who both work full-time for the clan and are head of further 10 full-time professional SK members. A minority stake is still held by founder Ralf "Griff" Reichert. SK Gaming is sponsored by AMD, ATI, SteelSeries and Adidas, and used to also finance itself by the "SK Insider" zone on their own website, which has not been around for quite sometime. However, according to Rodic, 85% of the clan's funds comes from their sponsors.[8]

[edit] Current roster

[edit] Counter-Strike

* Flag of Sweden Kristoffer "Tentpole" Nordlund
* Flag of Sweden Jimmy "allen" Allén
* Flag of Sweden Dennis "walle" Wallenberg
* Flag of Sweden Robert "RobbaN" Dahlström
* Flag of Sweden Marcus "zet" Sundström

[edit] Counter-Strike Female

* Flag of the United States Alice 'ali' Lew
* Flag of the United States Jane 'janeosaur' Wie
* Flag of the United States Jennifer 'jso' So
* Flag of Canada Lidia 'lidy' Poulin
* Flag of the United States Christine 'potter' Chi
* Flag of the United States Benita 'b^' Novshadian

[edit] Warcraft III

* Flag of South Korea June 'Lyn' Park
* Flag of Germany Daniel 'Miou' Holthuis
* Flag of South Korea Seo Woo 'ReiGn' Kang
* Flag of South Korea Sung Sik 'ReMinD' Kim
* Flag of South Korea Seong Deok 'SoJu' Lee

[edit] DotA Allstars

* Flag of Sweden Jonathan "Loda" Berg (Team Captain)
* Flag of Sweden Alexander "Snow" Nystrand
* Flag of Sweden Tommy "Tompa" Andersson
* Flag of Sweden Mikael "Hailo" Grinsvall
* Flag of Sweden Edvin "KwoM" Börjesson

[edit] World of Warcraft

[edit] European Team

* Flag of Sweden Stefan 'zeksy' Baudin (Team Captain)
* Flag of Sweden Michael 'Dosferra' Tofer
* Flag of Sweden Thomas 'Lomas' Lindmark
* Flag of Sweden Jonas 'Tarde' Jakobsson
* Flag of Sweden Erik 'daimx' Olofsson
* Flag of Sweden Liam 'Steinaz' Steinberg
* Flag of Sweden Andreas 'Zumrok' Östman
* Flag of Turkey Gokhan 'Laflamme' Akinturk
* Flag of Spain Enrick ' Laden ' Viñolas

WCS - Western Connecticut Stars

* Flag of the United StatesFlag of Brazil WCS | hazard Raphael
* Flag of the United StatesFlag of Brazil WCS | gore Tadeu
* Flag of the United StatesFlag of Brazil WCS | yoshi Rodolfo
* Flag of the United StatesFlag of Brazil WCS | kotic Aislan
* Flag of the United StatesFlag of Brazil WCS | crasher Yago
* Flag of the United StatesFlag of Brazil Manager ' Leonardo Pupim

[edit] FIFA

* Flag of Germany Daniel "hero" Schellhase
* Flag of Germany Dennis "styla" Schellhase
* Flag of Austria Mario "mario" Viska
* Flag of Germany Mohamed "TornAdo" El-eter
* Flag of Germany Daniel "eNnu" Ennulat
* Flag of Germany Jannik "Era" Huber
* Flag of Germany Joshua "Kr0ne" Begehr
* Flag of Germany Alwyn "s1lence" Kotze

[edit] Notable alumni

* Flag of Germany Tim "Burke" Reichert
* Flag of Germany Benjamin "Kane" Reichert
* Flag of Germany Musa "Kila" Celik

[edit] Notable achievements

SK has placed in the top 3 at the following major international tournaments:

[edit] Counter-Strike

* 1st * World GameMaster Tournament: @ DreamHack 2008
* 8-16 [King of The Hill]: Winter Championships 2008
* 1st WCG SEC 2007
* 1st CPL: Winter Championships 2005
* 1st CPL: Summer Championships 2005
* 2nd Electronic Sports World Cup 2005
* 2nd CPL: Summer Championships 2004
* 1st CPL: Winter Championships 2003
* 1st CPL: Copenhagen 2003
* 1st CPL: Summer Championships 2003
* 1st CPL: Cannes 2003
* 1st World Cyber Games 2003
* 3rd Electronic Sports World Cup 2003
* 1st CPL: Summer Championships 2002
* 3rd CPL: Winter Championships 2002

[edit] World Championships

* Cyberathlete Professional League (2002, 2003, 2005)
* World Cyber Games (2003)
* World GameMaster Tournament (2008)

[edit] Zonerank Rankings

* Top Ranking: 2nd (03-2008)[9]
* Current Ranking: 2nd[10]

[edit] Deathmatch

* 1st KODE5 Finals 2006 – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
* 1st QuakeCon 2006 – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
* 1st World Series of Video Games Intel Summer Championship 2006 – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
* 2nd World Series of Video Games Sweden 2006 – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
* 1st World Series of Video Games London 2006 – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
* 1st DigitalLife 2006[11] – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
* 1st World Cyber Games 2006[12] – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
* 1st World Series of Video Games Finals 2006 – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
* 2nd 2005 CPL World Tour: Istanbul – Benjamin "zyz" Bohrmann (Painkiller)
* 1st 2005 CPL World Tour: Spain – Stephan "SteLam" Lammert (Painkiller)
* 3rd 2005 CPL World Tour: Brazil – Benjamin "zyz" Bohrmann (Painkiller)
* 3rd Electronic Sports World Cup 2005 – Fox (Quake 3)
* 3rd 2005 CPL World Tour: Sweden – Benjamin "zyz" Bohrmann (Painkiller)
* 3rd 2005 CPL World Tour: United Kingdom – Benjamin "zyz" Bohrmann (Painkiller)
* 2nd CPL 2005 Winter – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
* 3rd Cyberathlete Professional League: Summer 2004 – Stephan "SteLam" Lammert (Painkiller)
* 1st Cyberathlete Professional League: Summer 2004 – Team (Unreal Tournament 2004)
* 2nd Electronic Sports World Cup 2004 – Christian "GitzZz" Hoeck (Unreal Tournament 2004)
* 1st Electronic Sports World Cup 2003 – Christian "GitzZz" Hoeck (Unreal Tournament 2003)
* 3rd World Cyber Games 2001 – Stephan "SteLam" Lammert (Quake 3)

[edit] World Championships

* KODE5 (2006, Quake 4)
* World Cyber Games (2006, Quake 4)
* World Series of Video Games (2006, Quake 4)
* Electronic Sports World Cup (2003, Unreal Tournament)

[edit] Warcraft III

* 2nd ESL Extreme Masters 2007 – Flag of Ukraine Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn
* 1st WCG SEC 2007 – Flag of Ukraine Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn
* 2nd World Series of Videogames, Finals 2006 – Flag of South Korea Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
* 3rd World Cyber Games 2006 – Flag of Ukraine Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn
* 1st KODE5 2006- Flag of Russia Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev
* 1st World Series of Videogames, China 2006 – Flag of South Korea Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
* 1st World Series of Videogames, Sweden 2006 – Flag of Russia Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev
* 2nd NGL One Season I 2006 – Team
* 3rd Warcraft 3 Champions League V 2006 – Team
* 1st EuroCup 2005 – Flag of Ukraine Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn
* 3rd CPL Summer 2005 – Flag of Sweden Björn "ElakeDuck" ödman
* 2nd Electronic Sports World Cup 2005 – Flag of Russia Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev
* 3rd ACON5 2005 – Flag of Russia Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev
* 3rd Warcraft 3 Champions League VII 2005 – Team
* 2nd World E-Sport Games I 2005 – Flag of South Korea Tae min "Zacard" Hwang
* 3rd Warcraft 3 Champions League VI 2004 – Team
* 2nd World Cyber Games 2004 – Flag of South Korea Tae min "Zacard" Hwang
* 2nd Electronic Sports World Cup 2004 – Flag of Sweden Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson
* 3rd Electronic Sports World Cup 2004 – Flag of Sweden Alborz "HeMaN" Haidarian
* 3rd ACON4 2004 – Flag of South Korea Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
* 3rd Warcraft 3 Champions League V 2004 – Team
* 1st Blizzard Worldwide Invitational 2004 – Flag of Sweden Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson
* 3rd Cyber X Gaming 2004 – Flag of Bulgaria Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
* 1st World Cyber Games 2003 – Flag of Bulgaria Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
* 1st Euro Cyber Games 2003 – Flag of France Antoine "FaTC" Zadri
* 2nd Euro Cyber Games 2003 – Flag of Bulgaria Georgi "Zeerax" Marinov
* 1st Electronic Sports World Cup 2003 – Flag of Sweden Alborz "HeMaN" Haidarian
* 2nd Electronic Sports World Cup 2003 – Flag of Sweden Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson
* 3rd Clikarena 2003 – Flag of Bulgaria Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
* 2nd CPL Cannes 2003 – Flag of Bulgaria Zdravko "Insomnia" Georgiev
* 2nd CPL Oslo 2002 – Flag of Sweden Sven "Kovax" Running
* 3rd CPL Oslo 2002 – Flag of Sweden Fahad "DsCo" Hamid

[edit] World Championships

* KODE5 (2006)
* Blizzard Worldwide Invitational (2004)
* World Cyber Games (2003)
* Electronic Sports World Cup (2003)

[edit] World of Warcraft

* 1st european kill of Brutallus
* 1st world kill of Felmyst
* 2nd world kill of Eredar Twins
* 1st world kill of M'uru
* 1st world kill of Kil'jaeden – (final boss of The Burning Crusade.)

[edit] External links

* Official SK-Gaming Website
* SK endorses NVidia

[edit] References

1. ^ Die Killer aus dem Kinderzimmer, focus.de (German)
2. ^ Clans @ eSports: Schroet Kommando - Eine Erfolgsgeschichte, giga.de (German)
3. ^ Interview with Andreas "bds" Thorstensson
4. ^ brunk leaves SK.Swe, SpawN joins for WCG, ukterrorist.com
5. ^ Ablösesummen im eSport? ElemeNt macht's vor!, poerk.com (German)
6. ^ a b SK.swe is back, giga.de (German)
7. ^ "Ensidia". Mark Laursen.
8. ^ Spieler-Firma gründen: Das Unternehmen Clan, tomshardware.com
9. ^ ZoneRank
10. ^ ZoneRank
11. ^ "DigitalLife 2006 Final Standings" – GGL
12. ^ "WCG 2006 Invitational Quake4 All Stars – Final Results" – WCG