Career
He was an early pioneer of competitive gaming and was once considered one of the best professional gamers in the world. He founded Fatality Incorporated., a video game accessories company. Fatal1ty became a professional in 1999 at age 18 playing Quake III Arena.
In addition to receiving numerous product partnerships with his company Fatal1ty Brand (Fatal1ty, Incorporated), he has been featured in mainstream newsprint publications such as Time, The New York Times, Forbes, and the British Broadcasting Corporation World Service.
He has also been featured on 60 Minutes. He has a training regimen where he practices at least eight hours each day, sometimes more.
Wendel has been a successful competitor in many first-person shooter games. He debuted as a professional gamer in October 1999 by placing 3rd in the Quake III Arena tournament at the CPL"s FRAG 3 event.
Most of his successes have been with one-versus-one deathmatch games including Quake III Arena, Unreal Tournament 2003, and Painkiller.
On March 13, 2003, Wendel was profiled on an episode of Music Television"s True Life reality television series. The episode documented his life and how he prepared for the Cyberathlete Professional League"s Winter 2002 Unreal Tournament 2003. Among those featured alongside Wendel in the professional gaming industry were his friends Philosophy "shogun" Kennedy, and Brian "astro" Lewis, who were also very well known in the professional gaming circuit.
Wendel started a business, Fatal1ty, Incorporated., that sells his brand of gaming mouse pads, "FATpads".
Wendel was the spokesman of the now defunct Championship Gaming Series and has put aside actively competing. He was inducted into the International Video Game Hall of Fame in August 2010 and holds a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records.
In July 2012, Topps released their 2012 Topps Allen & Ginter Baseball set, which includes autographs and worn shirt memorabilia cards of Wendel. CPL: 4 (2000, 2001, 2002, 2005)
WCG: 1 (2000).
