FaunKeH

Chris "FaunKeH" Galea is an Australian SMITE player. He is currently retired.

Biography
FaunKeH lives in Sydney, New South Wales.

FaunKeH grew up with a strong passion for video games. He began playing SMITE in May 2013 on NA servers, and despite the pain of 300 ping, he was determined and persistent with the game. With the addition of the OCE servers, he took interest in the competitive scene in mid-2014, actively playing in multiple tournaments.

He had his first competitive gaming experience on team Anarchy, alongside other early Oceanian players including HoRiZoNxX, ShadowWolf, Gruffdogga and N0013HUNT3R. Their first tournament was in the 2014 NA Challenger cup, where - partially due to their AU ping differences - had a shocking debut, despite being knocked out in the first round. Disheartened, yet still determined, FaunKeH and others from Anarchy disbanded but merged with team Anti Alias, which was around the time Oceanic servers were released. Anti Alias was highly successful in a number of local tournaments, in both conquest and 3v3 joust brackets.

Throughout 2015, FaunKeH was been part of teams including Silicon Sports, TRIDENT eSports, and Exhilarated. FaunKeH performed fairly well in the first OCE Pro League as jungler for Exhilarated, although was eventually replaced with Maxen. FaunKeHs' play-style did not seem suited to the Season 2 meta, and his performance in the jungle role was less potent.

In mid 2015, HeartsGoBoom established Synapse Gaming, with the vision of growing as a team and helping each other reach their maximum potential. FaunKeH had adapted to the new Season 2 map during the second OCE Pro League Split, especially after changes which some called the "FaunKeH Meta"; where he dominated the double-jungle strategy with Entropy0. After performing exceptionally well through the qualifier round, FaunKeH did not gel well with Synapse Gaming and was asked to step down from the team. A couple of weeks later, HeartsGoBoom retired from SMITE, allowing to FaunKeH jump back into the active roster as captain, re-branding the team as Team Solo Theo, where the players persisted through the second half of the OCE Pro League. After more solid roster changes, the team was again reformed for the third time under "Lotus", however this was short lived. FaunKeH joined Ivory Gaming for a last hope of winning the Oceanic Challenger Cup, to play at Melbourne PAX 2015.

Ivory Gaming, although only together with this roster for under a week before the tournament, managed to reach the top two of the Oceanic Challenger Cup to qualify for Regional Championship. Many of those greatly involved in the Oceanic scene of SMITE have described FaunKeHs' aggressive play-style as the final piece of the puzzle of Ivory. He stayed on the lineup when it was acquired by Integral Nation.

Despite his hopes, Integral Nation placed fourth out of four at the Regional Championship, not winning a single game. Integral Nation disbanded soon afterwards, and FaunKeH helped reform Sin Gaming. This was again short lived, with the team only staying together for 2 months. He then announced his retirement.

Trivia

 * He is known for stealing the enemy speed buff, which he refers to as "fire giant", because of this, the speed buff on his teams' side of the map is referred to as the "communal speed buff".
 * In Season 3, FaunKeH became notorious for quirky builds in the solo lane, coined "FaunKeH Value builds".
 * He is most well known for playing in the jungle role.
 * He finished Season 2 League/Ranked in Diamond IV for Joust and Diamond V for Conquest.
 * The original Arachne before her rework was his favourite god.
 * He obtained a Bachelor Degree in Audio Engineering and Music Production at JMC Academy NSW in 2015.

External Content

 * "Oh No Story Time" Interview


 * CyberGamer Profile


 * FaunK leaves iN, makes new team via Reddit


 * "My experiences in competitive over the past year, and what I believe a team should be." via Reddit