Sam Mathews was a teenager who loved nothing more than to compete. He played Rugby for Harlequins' under-21s team.

Yet competing only once a week wasn't enough for him, so he instead began to channel his competitive nature through video games - where he could continuously compete online against others.

His love for gaming and competition lead him to forming Fnatic, one of the biggest and most successful esports teams of all time.

Sam Mathews (right) went from playing Rugby for Harlequins to founding an esports team

He was competing in video gaming himself but a fake tournament drove him to take matters into his own hands: 'The real reason I started was there was a tournament which actually turned out to be a hoax. It was a $1million tournament in ‘Enemy Territory’ which was a basically a free-to-play game, I loved it and thought it was going to be a huge title.

'I was on one of the top teams and I wanted to get my team to go over to Vegas for this tournament. I was playing for a team called Korea Truth at the time. I was like how do I get them over there, well we need sponsorships so I started hitting up brands and realised at that point it was really hard to do that with a name like that, with no backstory and it wasn’t my team.

'So I thought I why don’t I do all of this but with a fresh start and all of the best players I can muster and convince to join, that’s how Fnatic was formed. I really saw this was going to be a massive thing even back in 2004 but I didn't really think at that point: I’m going to run a team for the next 15 years of my life, I was just 18 and wanted to make a team.'

Yet that's exactly what's happened, Fnatic have not only existed for years but have maintained their place at that the top. Still it wasn't easy for Mathews at the start: 'The first thing was obviously trying to convince people that this was going to be a great thing, this is going to be the team you need to join etc. Luckily back then, there wasn’t much money on the table so it wasn’t like I had to throw around tons of cash I just had to promise to send them to a few events, I sold my car to do that.

To fund the creation of Fnatic, Mathews sold his car and had financial help from his mother

'That’s exactly what the promise was so I got an Unreal Tournament team to join who went to CPL and got top two. I spent £3,000 sending them over there and they won like £10,000 so I was promised to get £4,000 back. It was all about the early maths and then showing them the vision, building this brand, wanting to represent this space in a legitimate way.'

And while a lot of teenagers struggle to convince their parents to let them compete in video games as their full time job, Mathews' mum was more than supportive of him: 'I flew back to Sydney after doing this whole thing and my Mum sits me down and asks what I’m doing and what happened to my car.

'I tell her everything and she’s says if you’re going to do this properly, let me help you, I’ll handle the finances and put some money in. I had some inheritance but the rule was I couldn’t touch that until I 20-years-old but my Mum let me take some out of that as well so I gave her half of the company.

'We both put in £20k and that was the first bit of capital for Fnatic and is basically what we ran on for ages, winning tournaments and hustling for small amounts of money. I think it’s hard for an esports organisation to start now because it’s a legitimate sport, you can’t just create a football team and be Man United.'

From humble beginnings, Fnatic grew and grew to the esports juggernauts they are today with teams in eight titles with particularly a lot of success in CS:GO and League of Legends.

Fnatic have had years of success through multiple esports titles including League of Legends

Mathews says they had early success because they quickly built up a reliable reputation: 'We were probably the first team to professionalise; treat the players fairly , pay them on time and always delivered on promises.

'We gained a lot of respect so what ends up happening is you do get benefits of being a brand in the space that people respect because you then get players interested in playing for you and they know that they will get stability.'

And someone who played a huge role in Fnatic's early success is Counter Strike legend Patrick 'cArn' Sattemon. In the 2000s he captained Fnatic to multiple trophies and helped them become the greatest Counter-Strike team of all time.

Now Sattermon pushes Fnatic forward from behind the scenes, as the Chief Gaming Officer he ensures the organisation remain relevant and successful in all of the biggest esports titles.

He says that Fnatic have always been successful because everyone at the company are gamers themselves: 'We’ve been successful for so long because of our very talented players. They are able to perform at their very best when it really matters. But when you take a step back and look into the past, it’s down to the fact that we knew from early on what gamers needed to be successful.

'All of us in Fnatic’s pro gaming department come from a video game background ourselves, we are specifically looking for players who are in the later stages of their careers or are retiring to take management or coaching roles.

Sattermon lead Fnatic's CS team to glory and is now in charge of all eight of their esport teams

'That is something we’ve seen that relates well to our training, the decision making that goes into our roster changes, how we prepare for tournaments and how we absorb and learn from losses.

'Naturally, the successes we have had in the big esport titles over the last 10 years have put us in a position where we are deemed as one of the pinnacle grounds of esports. Maybe a 10-year-old today is saying to his mum I’m playing this game because I want to play for Fnatic, much like how I was a kid saying I wanted to play for Newcastle who were doing quite well back then with Alan Shearer.'

Now big sports teams and investors are pouring money into the scene but funding alone won't be enough to find success in the esports industry. Sattermon says the next crucial step for Fnatic is investing in youth: 'I would argue that growing grassroots connections is way easier in esports than it is in traditional sports. Because of the digital nature, we can find players around the world and see trends and patterns that are impossible to find in football.

'The million dollar question is what team can become superior in sourcing and developing talent and eventually integrating them into their team or selling them to somewhere else. That is where I eventually see Fnatic, hopefully in the near future we can take some massive leaps.

'I can’t speak much about that now but we are working on a lot of things around that area. We already have 40 players and without diluting our success, I only see that number growing over time.'