eSports Unfold: Fabian 'Febiven' Diepstraten

“I really want to win.”

Fnatic’s Fabian ‘Febiven’ Diepstraten doesn’t mince his words. As the pro gamer tells us in our latest eSports Unfold video, it’s all about the sweet taste of victory. “It's really exciting to play a big match, because there are so many eyes on you, and I want to show people that I can beat them.”

We’re back with another eSports Unfold video, our documentary series that gives you a look behind the multi-million dollar events and the screens of eSports pros and celebs, to see what makes them tick, and this time we’re taking a look inside the team’s League of Legends training house in Berlin.

While Fnatic boasts one of the most established League of Legends teams on the circuit, this time, we’re joining the latest addition to the LoL roster, ‘Febiven’ Diepstraten, the 18-year-old Dutchman who joined at the start of the year and plays mid-lane, one of the most intensive and difficult positions to master – but Diepstraten is already showing plenty of promise.

As part of the newly rebuilt Fnatic squad, he’s helped get the team off to an impressive start in the 2015 season and has already made waves, having played a crucial role in the victory over Unicorns of Love in this year’s EU LCS Spring playoffs finals, helping to take home the trophy in a best of five match. Along the way through the spring season, Febiven and his team-mates have also racked up wins against top teams including his former clan, H2k-Gaming, as well as Meet Your Maker, Copenhagen Wolves and SK Gaming.

Despite his youth, Febiven is already an old hand on the scene. He started his competitive career with Cloud 9 Eclipse, enjoying a run of strong form and a string of tournament wins before moving over to H2k with the majority of the Cloud 9 roster. At the start of 2015, Febiven was picked as part of Fnatic’s rebuilt line-up, alongside Huni, ReignOver and Steeelback, with only YellOwStaR remaining from the previous line-up. The refreshed team’s already proven itself, with 13 wins and five losses in this year’s EU Spring Split (second only to SK Gaming’s 15 wins), not to mention winning the Spring playoffs, and have plenty of hunger for even more success.

"I've been with Fnatic for two months now. So, I'm really new and I have a lot to learn,” Febiven admits. “My overall knowledge of the game is getting higher, and my coach is really smart so he shares lots of important knowledge that I can take with me, and it's really helpful. He's trying to get me out of my comfort zone. Sometimes it's hard to be out of my comfort zone."

I told my parents that school was useless for me at that point, as I really knew I was going to become a professional gamer.

– Febiven

Adjusting to life at the top hasn’t been easy. “So I used to be a regular boy who went to school and played soccer,” he tells Red Bull. “I was playing League of Legends with just my friends, and then I really tried for myself to get high up in the rankings. I started watching the pro scene and had a lot of talks with my parents about what I was doing.

“I told them that school was useless for me at that point, as I really knew I was going to become a professional gamer.

"At first they were like, ‘no, you're going to keep going to school, until you can prove to us that you can actually earn money’. “So I played some tournaments in London and Denmark, and I started earning money, and they agreed I could stop school. Now my parents fully support me – it's a really nice feeling.”

Febiven’s ascent has taken him by surprise; the eSports scene moves fast and he’s unsure where he’s headed. All that matters right now is notching up more of those wins. “I really don't know where I'm going to be in three, four, five years, as I don't really think about it. I just think about playing at the moment – time will tell. I’ll just have to see."