The UK has had a remarkable year in esports, with huge victories in FIFA, H1Z1 and F1 to name a few – now it can add Gwent to the list.
UK player Fred “Freddybabes” Bird won the $100,000 Gwent Challenger #2 tournament this month, taking home $68,750 after beating Germany’s Benjamin “Kolemoen” Pfannstiel 3-0 in the grand final at Moszna castle in Poland.
18-year-old Freddybabes also received the December 2017 Gwent Challenger winner’s ring and has qualified for the 2019 Gwent World Masters.
Runner-up Kolemoen left with $14,000.
Challenger champion!!! ? I’m sooo happy to have won and couldn’t have done it without the support from everyone, love you guys <3 Huge thanks to the @PlayGwent team and all the awesome people that made this event possible! Super excited for Gwent’s future! ?
— Fred Bird (@Freddybabes) December 17, 2017
In the semi-finals, November’s Gwent Open finalist Damian “TailBot” Kaźmierczak lost out to Kolemoen 3-2 win, while Freddybabes beat previous Gwent Challenger champion Adrian “Lifecoach” Koy 3-0 in the other semi.
For Freddybabes to have won Gwentslam earlier this year, then the November Gwent Open, to go on to win the Gwent Challenger with a 3-0 in the semi-final AND a 3-0 in the grand final, it’s an astounding achievement.
The UK player didn’t just win, he smashed his opponents to comfortably take the title. That’s three tournament wins in the space of a few months.
“Are we seeing the emergence of a new UK esports hero who will dominate competitive Gwent over the next few years?”
According to Esports Earnings, Freddybabes has earnt $86,000 in prize winnings this year alone. He also coaches other players via GamerSensei.
Are we seeing the emergence of a new UK esports hero who will dominate competitive Gwent over the next few years?
Let’s certainly hope so. It’s great to see a relatively new game emerge on the esports scene and to have a host of UK talent rise along with it.
Further reading: Gwent and Eternal: A look at the new breed of CCGs and their UK esports talent
Dom is an award-winning writer and finalist of the Esports Journalist of the Year 2023 award. He graduated from Bournemouth University with a 2:1 degree in Multi-Media Journalism in 2007.
As a long-time gamer having first picked up the NES controller in the late ’80s, he has written for a range of publications including GamesTM, Nintendo Official Magazine, industry publication MCV and others. He worked as head of content for the British Esports Federation up until February 2021, when he stepped back to work full-time on Esports News UK and offer esports consultancy and freelance services. Note: Dom still produces the British Esports newsletter on a freelance basis, so our coverage of British Esports is always kept simple – usually just covering the occasional press release – because of this conflict of interest.
