Joe “Munchables” Fenny is leaving ESL UK, and it’s fair to say his departure will leave a hole in UK esports.
Munchables rode his way into casting UK esports tournaments back in early 2013 and made a name for himself within the National University Esports League (NUEL).
He landed a hole in one when he joined ESL UK in mid-July 2015 and has been a big part of UK esports’ ace history since. We were lucky enough to interview Munchables back in ESL UK’s early days.
Joe was a key driver of the ESL UK League of Legends Premiership back then when it was still brand new, in terms of casting, but he quickly showed there was much more to his game than just League.
Here’s an old highlights video from 2015 we dug out featuring Munchables and Excoundrel for ESL UK
In fact, he cast a range of titles, from Hearthstone to CSGO and even the Guild Wars 2 Pro League to name a few. It wasn’t just about UK esports either – for the latter half of 2017, Munchables moved to California to cast Vainglory, and he’s also worked at Intel Extreme Masters. So he clearly has a vast repertoire of game knowledge right up in his… sleeves.
I remember playing in an industry Rocket League match at the opening of ESL’s Studio 1 in Leicester and Joe’s voice was broadcast around the studio as we played. As a journalist, it was surreal to take part in an esports match with such ace production values, and to hear his voice describing the action while I played made me feel like I was taking part in the real thing, even if my plays were abysmal!
Today is the end of an era for me, my final day as an employee of @ESLUK.
Incredibly excited for what’s to come, but very sad to have to say goodbye.
I’ve made friends for life at this company and had the best 3 years I ever could have hoped for. Thank you for everything.
— Munch (@ESL_Munchables) March 14, 2018
For me, if I had to describe Munchables as a piece of sports equipment, I would say he’s just like a putter – something you want that will get you to the end result smoothly and into the hole efficiently, so to speak. His warm voice is just at the right pitch and makes viewing esports seem natural.
If you’re wondering what’s with all the strange wording used in this article so far, it’s because I’ve been giving myself a challenge to see how many times I can put terms like ‘ride’, ‘ace’ and ‘hole’ within it, and making hole-in-one/ace golf puns where possible. Why?
An ace in the hole
Well, if you had to choose one ace moment that people will remember Munchables for in League of Legends, it’s probably this:
During Fnatic Academy’s win over ASUS ROG in the EU Challenger Series in early 2017, Munchables got his words a little muddled when he said something about an “ace… it rides up into his hole” (ahem)!
He then started to prevent himself from laughing out loud, while co-caster Excoundrel asked “what did you just say?” before bursting into laughter. The community warmed to the British casters and found the (w)hole moment funny – as this Reddit Ask Me Anything shows.
It’s not yet been revealed where Munchables is off to yet, but you can expect an announcement to appear right up into Twitter soon.
Good luck in the future Munchables – we’re sure you’ll be ace wherever you ride to next.
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.
