Scotland’s Liam “ThunderStruck” McCarron has won the EE Mobile Series, and in doing so, becomes a Clash Royale player for Fnatic.
Liam claimed a 3-1 victory against Jules “Bigbadjulsy” Swanson in the grand final at the BT Sport Studios last Sunday (January 20th).
The result of the final, broadcast live over Twitch and YouTube to over 31,000 esports fans, sees ThunderStruck join the Fnatic Clash Royale Academy roster.
At Fnatic, Liam will receive a full-time competitive salary, top training and his own gaming set-up.
Liam said: “The EE Mobile Series has been an unbelievable journey. I’m delighted to become the first-ever series champion, winning the opportunity to represent Fnatic – it feels unreal knowing I’ll be able to play for the Fnatic fans.”
“Fnatic famously has a long history of building up legendary players and we truly believe that we have found yet another promising prodigy in ThunderStruck.”
Wouter Sleijffers, Fnatic
Wouter Sleijffers, CEO at Fnatic, added: “The EE Mobile Series has been a fantastic chapter in the Fnatic story.
“Fnatic famously has a long history of building up legendary players and we truly believe that we have found yet another promising prodigy in ThunderStruck, who emerged the winner out of a large and highly competitive pool of players that participated in the series.
“We look forward to welcoming ThunderStruck into the Fnatic family and help him take on an exciting role as part of our academy.”
Last month, ThunderStruck beat other Brits in the UK qualifier of the separate Red Bull Mobile Esports Open (M.E.O). He will now go on to battle against players from 35 other countries in the grand finals of that tournament, which takes place in Dortmund, Germany on February 2nd and 3rd.
The news comes after Fnatic signed a jersey sponsorship deal with smartphone brand OnePlus.
Carl Pei, co-founder of OnePlus, said: “Congratulations to ThunderStruck for a hard-fought victory in the EE Mobile Series.”
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.
