Sk-Gaming

SK Gaming is a professional German electronic sports organization founded in 1997 by a small group of Quake players living in Oberhausen. SK Gaming retains teams across different genres and are particularly known for their success in Counter-Strike tournaments. SK is one of the founding members of the G7 Teams.[1]
Contents
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* 1 History
o 1.1 Beginnings
o 1.2Later Years
o 1.3 Stability Issues and Reorganization
* 2 Business model
* 3 Current roster
o 3.1 League of Legends
o 3.2 StarCraft II
o 3.3 Quake
o 3.4 Call of Duty
o 3.5 Sports
* 4 Notable alumni
* 5 Selected achievements
o 5.1 Counter-Strike
o 5.2 Zonerank Rankings
o 5.3Quake, Painkiller & Unreal Tournament
o 5.4 Warcraft III
o 5.5 World of Warcraft
* 6 References
* 7 External links

History
Beginnings

Schroet Kommando was founded in 1997 as a German Quake clan by four brothers and three accomplices in Oberhausen, Germany. The original line-up of Schroet Kommando consisted of Ralf "Griff" Reichert, Daniel "Godlike" Beames, Tim"Burke" Reichert, Benjamin "Kane" Reichert, Kristof "Speed" Salwiczek, Carsten "Storch" Kramer and Sven "Ramses" Tümmers.[2] According to Ralf Reichert, the original naming of the organization originated from one of the members repeatedly shouting, "Schröet!" This was a common occurrence from whenever a double-barreled shotgun would be handled, due to the translation meaning "shrapnel". Eventually,the team adopted this into their name, thus becoming "Schroet Kommando". Since then, the organization began using their abbreviation more often, until it eventually became SK Gaming.[3]

Initially, the Beames family home operated as the Schroet Kommando headquarters, concentrating primarily upon the Quake series. Early on, Schroet Kommando became one of the first clans to feature an all-femaleteam; the most notable of which was Annemarie "XS" Warnkross, who is a notable current television host on German TV. The organization expanded into Counter-Strike, where it became known as one of the most-successful squads in all of Germany. In September 2001, Andreas "bds" Thorstensson merged his Geekboys team and news syndicate with that of SK Gaming, with a long-term prospect of emphasizing thesuccess of his own organization. Thorstensson revolutionized electronic sports by having SK act as the first organization to have payable premium services ("SK Insider", a virtual marketplace in which subscribers could download demos, mods and add-ons better and earlier than others, talk directly to SK gamers etc.).[3] The organization's international Counter-Strike success came when they signed onthe players of the successful Swedish Counter-Strike clan Ninjas in Pyjamas. In 2003, SK Gaming became the first electronic sports organization to contract players, beginning with the SK Sweden Counter-Strike squad.[4]
Later Years

The 2006 season brought no successes to the Counter-Strike team, the most notable of which, the team failed to qualify for the Electronic Sports World Cup, in whichSweden was represented by rivals Ninjas in Pyjamas and the developing Fnatic team. Thereafter, the team managed to qualify for the KODE5 finals, where they won two matches and lost to the Brazilians from Made in Brazil during the group stages. They then lost to Wisdom Nerve Victory in the single elimination round, placing fifth to eighth overall. Success did come for the Quake 4 squad however, asthe Swedish star player Johan "Toxic" Quick managed to win eight out of the ten major tournaments during that year, including four out of five World Championships. Meanwhile, the FIFA 06 squad had a successful year, as the team managed to win the prestigious Electronic Sports League Pro Series twice, and the German player Daniel "hero" Schellhase won the World Cyber Games championship.

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