In an interesting interview with Turtle's David "Affentod" Hiltscher famed dueler Johnathan "Fatal1ty" Wendel, who cites twelve world championships on his resume, revealed he has not retired from competition but is simply waiting until the right opportunity comes along to play again. Along the way Fatal1ty even mentions reading SK-gaming.com as part of his setup for getting esports news.

In the video interview, which runs for 25mins, Fatal1ty discusses his thoughts on Quake Live in comparison to Quake 3 and Painkiller, the modern breed of players' experience levels and his own competitive future.

Fatal1ty is not only a household name in gaming but one of the first players to really cross over into multiple games with huge success over and over again. Despite playing Quakeworld as a youth it was Quake 3 which brought Fatal1ty his first dose of fame. After a 3rd at Frag3 playing Q3Test (where only one map, what became Q3tourney2, was used) Fatal1ty transformed himself from an explosive and exciting up and coming player into the practice-worn professional he would become famous as. After putting in his time he won the Razer CPL event in 1999 for $40,000. With other Quake 3 victories, including at the predecessor event to the WCG in 2000, Fatal1ty carved out a niche for himself as the undisputed best Quake player in the world.

After some a dropoff in results which coincided with Quake 3's removal from the CPL and generally receding competitive circuit Fatal1ty moved on to pastures greener to take his shot in other games. Winning an AvP tournament got him a custom car for 1st prize, while in UT2003 he won the first CPL and then placed a respectable 3rd at ESWC in 2003. Fatal1ty even spent some time playing Counter-Strike for the American teams Forsaken and his own creation iFate. The next big stage for Fatal1ty came when the CPL announced its world tour in Painkiller in 2005. After initially struggling with the game Fatal1ty was able to adapt and gain ground on intuitive phenom VoO and when it came to the grand final in New York with the big money up for grabs Wendel was the last man standing as he stunned the Dutchman and much of the audience with his convincing comeback victory from the lower bracket.

A short interlude in Doom 3 aside, since then the only real push Fatal1ty has made to compete has been a brief spell in Quake 4 which saw him take 2nd at a WSVG event. His business ventures designing and marketing mousepads, computer parts and the like have seen him travelling the world over and over to promote his products at shootouts where members of the public and fellow gamers can challenge him to win prizes. Still the hardcore community wonders if and when Fatal1ty will make a comeback and more importantly whether he has the skills still to add another 'world' championship to that already stacked resume in the modern era.

Source: ESL-World