fRoD

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[e][h] fRoD

Player Information

Name:

Daniel Montaner

Birth:

August 13, 1986 (1986-08-13)

Country:

United States

Status:

Retired

Team:

FaZe Clan

Roles:

AWPer
Manager

Approx. Total Winnings:

$65,440

Games:

Counter-Strike
Source
Global Offensive

Links

History

Counter-Strike

200?-??-?? – 200?-??-??

United5

200?-??-?? – 2007-06-11

compLexity Gaming

2008-12-14 – 2011-07-28

Evil Geniuses

201?-??-?? – 201?-??-??

CheckSix Gaming

Counter-Strike: Source

2007-06-11 - 2008-11-18

Los Angeles Complexity

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

201?-??-?? – 2013-??-??

Denial eSports

2013-??-?? – 2013-11-18

United5

2015-12-19 – 2016-06-23

compLexity Gaming

2016-??-?? – Present

FaZe Clan (Manager)

Daniel "fRoD" Montaner is an American former professional Counter-Strike: Global Offensive player and former Counter-Strike 1.6 player. Since ending his career in Counter-Strike, he moved over to FaZe Clan's Overwatch lineup, and now he works as the Esports manager for the American organization

Biography

The fRoD story begins at the professional level when he played with GB at CPL Winter in 2002 losing to Team 3D and not getting very far, like many North American teams in that seeding dominated era. In 2003 he moved to aoX for seasons 7 and 8 of CAL-i where he made a name for himself as an up and coming player thanks to demo release and a minor appearance in a CAL playoff movie. His play was enough to continue his rise up the competitive ladder as by season 9 he had joined united5, a team who would earn the title of best US team that winter at the CPL by beating Team 3D along the way to a 7th placing. This also allowed fRoD to establish himself as one of the best AWPers in the US and have his play highlighted thanks to united5 leader Hare taking his dedication to the weapon into account when designing strats.

fRoD and united5 would not make it to the next CPL as an intact unit. When it leaked that the team would be merging with members of tsg to form a local team fRoD decided to leave as opposed to stick around and wait for that plan to unfold without him. Drifting amongst LAN teams of friends like alienGamers he bided his time waiting for a good opportunity to re-enter the competitive fray.

That opportunity would come in the form of joining compLexity Gaming, a team who were being gradually built up under the vision of businessman Jason Lake by acquiring CAL-i players for their roster. Few predicted big things for the team and fRoD despite X3 and Team 3D legend Bullseye being a member of the line-up. That all changed at CPL Winter 2004 where compLexity Gaming emerged from relative obscurity to beat a host of top teams with international pedigree and place 5th. fRoD's play at the event was a revelation as his AWP dominated against world class opposition and produced numerous rounds of highlight movie quality. This performance alone established fRoD as one of the world's top 5 AWP users.

At this point momentum for the team seemed to snowball as in 2005 they placed 2nd at CPL Barcelona ahead of perhaps the most stacked individual line-up ever in NiP. That was immediately followed up with a stellar individual and team performance at ESWC which saw compLexity Gaming bringing home the gold medal, the first and only time a North American team has ever won the event. This left compLexity Gaming considered the best team in the world and fRoD arguably the best player, certainly the most dominating in terms of his AWP play's effects on big games. In online competition compLexity Gaming hit their stride winning back to back CAL titles and generally looking unstoppable.

Bizarrely the latter half of 2005 saw one of the lowest periods for the team as sunman was cut and replaced with exodus which led to a number of defeats at the hands of Team 3D in domestic LAN competitions. Sunman was restored to the line-up but the CPL's Winter event saw the team finish a disappointing 9th place at a highly competitive event. Their position both domestically and internationally was in question. 2006 began well enough with compLexity Gaming winning the GGL's transatlantic showdown over the element-powered mousesport. Next up was the WEG Masters event which promised world class opposition but almost didn't happen due to organizational difficulties.

The event finally got under way and the incredibly talent packed field duked it out until compLexity Gaming emerged with a 2nd place finish. While the team had failed to complete their mission in the finals fRoD's individual play was once again at a world beating level as he showed against another hot team in project_kr and their superstar solo. The next events of 2006 did not go as well for the compLexity Gaming squad as they stumbled at the WSVG Lanwar event and then could only manage a tied 5th place at ESWC after making the 2nd group stage.

Continuing their trend compLexity Gaming rose from their poor form just when everyone was questioning them to hit a high note again at the WSVG's ISC event in the Summer of 2006. Beating 2nd and 3rd placing ESWC teams fnatic and aTTaX they took 1st place at the Dallas-based event, notably beating Alternate aTTaX twice from the lower bracket to win the entire event. The team's only loss at the event which had come at Alternate aTTaX's hands in the upper bracket saw fRoD putting up big numbers despite his team-mates solitary collapse against the talented Germans. compLexity Gaming then picked up a victory at the first CGI (Championship Gaming Invitational) beating Team 3D and [[Alternate aTTaX]]. Later that year fRoD played as a stand-in for Team 3D at the WCG's Pan-American games and came home with a silver medal for his resume.

The final two events of the year saw compLexity Gaming struggle to make an impact as at the WSVG finals in NY they faltered and then at the CPL's Winter event they found themselves in a group of death with fnatic, zEx and Team 3D which saw them eliminated prior to the playoffs. In 2007 the team was reshaped as Rambo and zet were brought in and the team fit in one last 1.6 event, winning the PNY Challenge over the likes of Pandemic. 2007 saw fRoD and compLexity Gaming make the switch to becoming Source players. Their first season they put up the best record and went on to win the individual CS crown at the world finals. They continued their run of dominance winning the NewEGG Lanfest and the Digital life Source events also. In just under a year fRoD had established himself as one of Source's best AWPers. Season 2 was less fruitful and saw a roster change implemented. Since then the team have played 1.6 again in CEVO and despite not climbing to the very top of the scene fRoD has shown his ability to regain his AWP skills in short order.

Impact and legacy

fRoD's impact was important in a more subtle manner than observers may be aware of. When he rose to the top end of the competitive scene there were no dedicated North American AWPers using the weapon at the major LANs and being successful with it. Even a player like ksharp who was always known for being an amazing AWPer online had struggled to replicate those skills with the gun on LAN and often shied away instead choosing to rifle the majority of rounds. The impact fRoD brought was to show that not only could he use the weapon effectively on LAN against the best in the world but he could even perform above and beyond his online level in big games. Up until then with the exception of some very skilled European AWPers or cogu the common wisdom was that the top teams were too good with rifles to make AWPing a worthwhile gamble. fRoD not only provided a counter for that argument but actually dominated with the weapon, accruing the best statistical average in all of CS.

Claims that his AWP could control entire areas of the map seemed brash and cocky when he issued them in his united5 days of 2003 but by 2005 this had become a stark reality for his opponents and his play at ESWC 2005 in particular established him as one of the world's elite players, a position he has yet to relinquish. His impact on his team was to raise them to the best team domestically and one of the best internationally. While his team-mates have shown their merit and skill over the years it has always been clear that for the most part compLexity Gaming has lived and died by fRoD's play, riding his momentum to numerous major titles.

fRoD's legacy is one of the will's ability to reach almost alchemically trans-mutational heights, he took the road less travelled and in doing so became more successful than all of his peers. A single minded determination to master the game's most dominating weapon turned him into the most dominating player in the world. He also showed the importance of not over-specializing as he tirelessly worked on the other areas of his game to ensure he became a complete player and not just a one trick pony. He stands as the measuring stick by which all future North American players who seek to be considered elite must be compared. His huge rounds and amazing plays in the biggest tournaments and games in the world cannot be overstated.

Information

Gear and settings

Mouse settings (list of)
Mouse	Effective DPI	cm/360	in/360	DPI	In-game sens.	Windows sens.	Zoom sens.	Raw input?	Polling rate
SteelSeries Sensei	800	52	20.5	400	2	5/11	0.77	On	1000 Hz
No date of last update specified!

Hardware

Mouse		Mousepad
	SteelSeries Sensei		SteelSeries QcK

Monitor		In-game resolution
	BenQ XL2420T	1920×1080

Keyboard		Headset
	SteelSeries 7G		SteelSeries Siberia
No date of last update specified!

Crosshair settings (list of)
Style	Size	Thickness	Sniper	Gap	Outline	Dot	Color	Alpha
4	4		1	-1	Yes (thickness 1)	No (0)		255
No date of last update specified!

Click "Expand" for a code to copy and paste into your console.
cl_crosshairalpha 255; cl_crosshaircolor ; cl_crosshairdot 0; cl_crosshairgap -1; cl_crosshairsize 4; cl_crosshairstyle 4; cl_crosshairusealpha 1; cl_crosshairthickness ; cl_crosshair_sniper_width 1; cl_crosshair_outlinethickness 1; cl_crosshair_drawoutline 1;

Achievements

Date	Placement	Tier	Tournament		Team	Result		Prize
2010-09-08	A11st	A2Major		Beat it! 2010 Grand Finals		2 : 1		$15,000
2010-07-15	A11st	A2Major		ESEA Invite Finals Season 6		2 : 1		$6,250
2009-12-13	A11st	A1Premier		IEM IV American Championship Finals		2 : 0		$15,000
2007-12-09	A11st	A2Major		CGS 2007 Individual Tournament		10 - 6		$25,000
2007-09-30	A11st	A2Major		DigitalLife 2007		16 - 4		$10,000
2007-06-21	A11st	A2Major		Stride Xfire Cup 2007		16 - 11		$13,500
2006-07-23	A11st	A1Premier		Championship Gaming Invitational 2006		10 - 5		$50,000
2006-07-09	A11st	A1Premier		2006 CPL Summer		2 : 0		$40,000
2006-05-03	A22nd	A1Premier		WEG Masters 2006		0 : 2		$20,000
2005-07-10	A11st	A1Premier		ESWC 2005		16 - 6		$40,000
About achievementsComplete Results in any Tournament

Trivia

• He was nominated for 'eSports Player of the Year' 2005, as well as 'North American player of the Decade' 2000-2010.
• Was voted the 14th best player of 2010.
• He previously worked at a bank during his hiatus after leaving United5 before re-joining compLexity Gaming from late 2013 to late 2015.
• When longtime teammate Warden got married in November of 2015, fRoD served as one of his groomsmen along with Storm

Media

• 2008-12-10 | ESEA Top 100 - fRoD by Ognian "steel" Gueorguiev of ESEA