Mere weeks after Cloud9 announced their mass investment, Forbes reported that esports mainstay Fnatic received an even more massive $7 million dollar injection from various investors including traditional sports management. The trend of NBA involvement in esports continues, as investors involved with the Boston Celtics become the next big names to take the dive.

The full list of investors is as follows:

  • Raptor Group, owners of AS Roma and the Boston Celtics
  • Hersh Interactive Group
  • Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab
  • Hannes Wallin, CEO and founder of Fractal Design

While Fnatic is best known for their adventures in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and League of Legends, the investment is notable when it comes so close to the inception of the Overwatch League. The $7 million investment makes sense when the reported price range for cities is between $2 and $5 million.

The Fnatic Overwatch team has struggled as of late, especially after their loss to RunAway in APEX, but they have allegedly experimented with the roster during the recent downtime and plan to retake their position at the top of American Overwatch once they can compete again. Of course, with Rogue's dominance, Selfless's emergence, and Team EnVyUs's return, doing so will be an incredibly tall task, especially given the incredibly deep field featuring LG Evil, Immortals, NRG, and Cloud9.

The investment might mark even more changes in the coming months for Fnatic, especially now that they appear as a more attractive (and lucrative) organization to prospective players.