The disbandment of Fnatic's Counter-Strike: Source team marks the end of an era. In early 2007 the line-up dominated the European scene and won virtually every event they attended, including Multiplay i31, the eXperience 2007 and Lan79 2007. In November, the Fnatic organization announced that the Source line-up would be promoted to 'Professional' status, and that they would receive a salary for their play.

Although this dominance was marred by small roster changes in recent months, Fnatic still managed to finish in 2nd place at the CGS Combine, losing only to Birmingham Salvo in the final. As a result, all five players were taken into the CGS in some way. Milan "xertion" Veeger and Quint "Blaze" Spierenburg were both drafted into Berlin Allianz to compete in the 2008 season. Luuk "darky" Verink and Sandor "proph" de Munck were drafted as taxi players for the Berlin franchise and Mark "AirRaid" Koks was also taken as a taxi player for the Stockholm Magnetik.

Rather than attempt to rebuild the team, Fnatic have decided to drop Counter-Strike: Source altogether. The official news post on the Fnatic website attempts to vindicate the decision by arguing that, "CS:S cannot justify investment as a game considering we will most likely lose any further team we build up to individual drafts of the CGS, and no major organisers have indicated they will pick up CSS in the face of the CGS".

Over on Fnatic.com, Luuk "darky" Verink released a statement explaining the move:

“We went to the CGS Combine, knowing that some of us had a good chance of getting drafted. We had a highly skilled squad with a lot of in-game and social skills.

But we wanted to go anyway, because the CGS is just the biggest tournament that is around for CS:Source at the moment. We're (Mark, Sandor and myself) really happy for Quint and Milan that they got drafted and will be starting one of the greatest things in their eSports careers.

With that said, we're also disappointed and sad that this means that Fnatic.css will be no more. The team won't be the same without these two great players and personalities and therefore we decided not to continue under the Fnatic flag.

I had a lot of fun in Fnatic.css and I want to thank Fnatic for that, but especially the guys for the awesome time that we played together and all the great achievements we accomplished.

Thanks to all the fans and all the friends for the great support and goodbye."

Finally, Fnatic's manager Sam Matthews bid farewell to the team in a statement of his own:

"I have never been one to like goodbye's, and never more is it true now! These five guys have been the ultimate fnatic players, they have represented us with skill, focus, professionalsim, and were at one time indestructable as a team in CSS. They wore the orange and black shirts with pride, and most of all they were great guys to spend time with, good friends of mine. I will miss them at events, and in the office which we spent so much time, but I wish them ALL the best of luck.. Quint, Milan, go and conquer LA, Luuk, Sandor, Mark I hope to see you guys in successful teams soon and good luck in future!

Thank you for being great people, players and friends in Fnatic!"

Fnatic's Counter-Strike: Source roster was as follows:

Luuk "darky" Verink
Sandor "proph" de Munck
Mark "AirRaid" Koks
Milan "xertion" Veeger
Quint "Blaze" Spierenburg


Source: Fnatic.com