SK Gaming is a professional esports group based in Germany. It has teams around the world that compete in various video games. The group is well-known for its achievements in Counter-Strike (CS) competitions. The team started in 1997 as a small group of Quake players in Oberhausen, Germany, and was originally called Schröt Kommando. During the mid-2000s, SK had success in several games, including Counter-Strike, Quake, FIFA, and later World of Warcraft. However, the group faced frequent changes in team members and internal problems. Beginning in 2009, SK made major changes, such as new leadership, completely replacing the team, and adopting a more cautious approach to business. The group joined and left many different esports competitions, including StarCraft II, League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, Dota 2, console esports, and others. In 2012, SK permanently closed its Counter-Strike division. In the years that followed, the group continued to shrink, experienced the departure of well-known players, and lost sponsors it had worked with for a long time.

History

Schröet Kommando was created in 1997 as a German Quake clan by four brothers and three other members in Oberhausen. The original group included Ralf "Griff" Reichert, Daniel "Godlike" Beames, Tim "Burke" Reichert, Benjamin "Kane" Reichert, Kristof "Speed" Salwiczek, Carsten "Storch" Kramer, and Sven "Ramses" Tümmers. According to Ralf Reichert, the name came from a member repeatedly shouting "Schröt," which means "shrapnel" in German. This term was often used when a double-barreled shotgun was handled. Over time, the group adopted the name "Schroet Kommando." Later, they began using the abbreviation "SK" more often, eventually becoming known as SK Gaming.

At first, the Beames family home in Germany served as the headquarters for Schroet Kommando, focusing mainly on the Quake series. Early on, Schroet Kommando became one of the first clans to include an all-female team. One notable member was Annemarie "XS" Warnkross, who later became a well-known television host in Germany. The organization later expanded into Counter-Strike, becoming one of the most successful teams in Germany. In September 2001, Andreas "bds" Thorstensson merged his team, Geekboys, with SK Gaming, aiming to grow his organization. Thorstensson changed electronic sports by introducing "SK Insider," a service where subscribers could access game demos, mods, and interact with SK players before others. SK Gaming's international success grew when they signed players from the Swedish Counter-Strike clan Ninjas in Pyjamas. In 2003, SK Gaming became the first electronic sports organization to officially contract players, starting with the SK Sweden Counter-Strike team.

In 2006, the Counter-Strike team faced challenges, including failing to qualify for the Electronic Sports World Cup, where Sweden was represented by rivals Ninjas in Pyjamas and Fnatic. The team later qualified for the KODE5 finals, winning two matches before losing to a Brazilian team and finishing fifth to eighth overall. However, the Quake 4 team had success, as Johan "Toxic" Quick, a Swedish player, won eight out of ten major tournaments that year, including four out of five World Championships. The FIFA 06 team also had a strong year, winning the Electronic Sports League Pro Series twice and securing the World Cyber Games championship with Daniel "hero" Schellhase.

In 2008, SK Gaming invested in World of Warcraft. Before the release of the Sunwell Plateau, the final challenge in World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, SK Gaming sponsored Curse, a top-ranked guild. SK Gaming's German competitor, Mousesports, was known for maintaining Nihilum, the most successful guild in the world. However, SK's newly formed SK.PvE team had a strong performance during the Sunwell Plateau, completing many boss kills first. Due to differing priorities, the PvE team was disbanded, with a focus on PvP (player versus player) activities. Near the end of 2008, SK Gaming entered the competitive console scene by acquiring a German Xbox team.

In the fall of 2009, the Counter-Strike team faced long-term stability issues after removing two members, Kristoffer "Tentpole" Nordlund and Marcus "zet" Sundström, due to disagreements and misrepresentation. The team refocused by adding players from H2k Gaming, Johan "face" Klasson and Frej "kHRYSTAL" Sjöström, who led the team to a gold medal victory against Fnatic two weeks later. In 2009, Andreas Thorstensson, the managing director and partial owner, left SK Gaming to pursue web development, giving full control to Alexander T. Müller-Rodic and making SK Gaming a German-only organization. Warcraft III was also discontinued to focus on a more conservative business model. To address Counter-Strike stability, SK Gaming replaced Frej "kHRYSTAL" Sjöström with Rasmus "GuX" Ståhl, a former Fnatic player. However, controversy arose when Fnatic arranged for Ståhl to return to their team despite still receiving payments from SK Gaming.

In 2010, SK Gaming invested in Avalon Heroes, an American Heroes of Newerth team, and a European League of Legends team. On August 2010, Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson, a Warcraft III veteran, joined SK Gaming to create a StarCraft II division. 2010 marked the end of SK Gaming's support for World of Warcraft, with the removal of its European, American, and Asian squads, as well as the closure of its Sansibar squad. On December 3, it was announced that Daniel "hero" Schellhase and Dennis "styla" Schellhase, a German FIFA duo, would retire from eSports after a successful career. On December 7, SK Gaming signed former Fnatic players Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg and Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund, while also losing Dennis "walle" Wallenberg. On December 2

Business model

SK Gaming is officially registered as a German limited liability company (GmbH). The company is owned by Alexander Müller-Rodic, Andreas Thorstensson, and Ralf Reichert. SK Gaming relies mostly on sponsorships for its operations, with major supporters including Toshiba, Kingston Technology, and Bigben. The company also earns money through its "SK Insider" subscription service. However, according to Müller-Rodic, most of the company's financial support comes from sponsorships.

League of Legends

On November 20, 2018, Riot Games announced that SK Gaming would be one of ten team partners in the newly renamed League of Legends European Championship (LEC). On December 20, 2018, SK Gaming announced that it had signed several players for its starting team in the 2019 LEC Spring Split. The players include top laner Jorge "Werlyb" Casanovas Moreno-Torres, jungler Oskar "Selfmade" Boderek, mid laner Choi "Pirean" Jun-sik, bot laner Jus "Crownshot" Marusic, and support Han "Dreams" Min-kook.

Notable alumni

• Tim "Burke" Reichert (Quake)
• Benjamin "Kane" Reichert (Quake)
• Musa "kila" Celik (Quake)
• Emil "HeatoN" Christensen (Counter-Strike)
• Andreas "bds" Thorstensson (Counter-Strike)
• Park "Lyn" June (Warcraft III)
• Fredrik "MaDFroG" Johansson (Warcraft III, StarCraft II)
• Lee "NaDa" Yoon-yeol (StarCraft II)
• Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg (Counter-Strike)
• Christopher "GeT_RiGhT" Alesund (Counter-Strike)
• Jang "MC" Min-chul (StarCraft II)
• Dennis "Svenskeren" Johnsen (League of Legends)
• Mikail "Maikelele" Bill (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)
• Shane "rapha" Hendrixson (Quake)
• Gabriel "FalleN" Toledo de Alcântara Sguario (Counter-Strike: Global Offensive)

Selected achievements

Bold indicates a CS:GO Major tournament.

• 1st ESL One Cologne 2016
• 3rd-4th ESL One New York 2016
• 2nd ESL Pro League Season 4, 2016
• 2nd Intel Extreme Masters Season XI Oakland
• 3rd-4th ELEAGUE Season 2
• 3rd-4th Esports Championship Series Season 2

• 3rd-4th ELEAGUE Major 2017
• 2nd DreamHack Masters Las Vegas 2017
• 1st cs_summit
• 1st Intel Extreme Masters Season XII – Sydney
• 1st DreamHack Open Summer 2017
• 1st Esports Championship Series Season 3
• 5th-8th PGL Major Kraków 2017
• 3rd-4th ESL One New York 2017
• 1st EPICENTER 2017
• 3rd-4th Intel Extreme Masters Season XII – Oakland
• 1st BLAST Pro Series: Copenhagen 2017
• 1st ESL Pro League Season 6

• 3rd-4th ELEAGUE Major: Boston 2018
• 1st WESG North America Regional Finals
• 3rd cs_summit 2
• 5th-8th StarLadder & i-League StarSeries Season 4
• 5th-6th ESL Pro League Season 7 – Finals
• 1st Adrenaline Cyber League 2018
• 5th-8th StarSeries i-League Season 5
• 1st Moche XL eSports CS:GO Cup

• CPL
• ESL
• ESWC
• KODE5
• WCG

• Top Ranking: 2nd (March 2008)
• Current Ranking: 2nd

• 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 – Johan "Toxic" Quick (Quake 4)
• 1st World Cyber Games 2006 – 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: 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)

• 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)

• 1st WCG SEC 2007 – Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn
• 2nd World Series of Videogames, Finals 2006 – Jung Hee "jamem" Chun
• 3rd World Cyber Games 2006 – Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn
• 1st KODE5 2006 – Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev
• 1st World Series of Videogames, China 2006 – Jung Hee "Sweet" Chun
• 1st World Series of Videogames, Sweden 2006 – Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev
• 2nd NGL One Season I 2006 – Team
• 3rd Warcraft 3 Champions League V 2006 – Team
• 1st ClanBase EuroCup 2005 – Mykhaylo "HoT" Novopashyn
• 3rd CPL Summer 2005 – Björn "ElakeDuck" ödman
• 2nd Electronic Sports World Cup 2005 – Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev
• 3rd ACON5 2005 – Andrey "Deadman" Sobolev
• 3rd Warcraft 3 Champions League VII 2005 – Team
• 2nd World E-Sport Games I 2005 – Tae min "Zacard" Hwang
• 3rd Warcraft 3 Champions League VI 2004 – Team
• 2nd World