The Michael Jordan of Gaming

[FBI]

http://dir.salon.com/tech/view/2000/09/05/thresh/index.html

Dennis "Thresh" Fong is his real name, he's made over 11 million and counting
from sponsors etc from his amazing gaming skills.

Amazing I never heard of this guy, I can picture this guys awesome ownage
in quake3 arena... Seriously, when people see him around they do /set kill_self 1

He got john carmacks ferarri at a game tournament, lucky sob.

Thought i'd share this if some of you didn't know about this fella.

Parad0x -FBI

[Opar]

September 05, 2000

:rolleyes:

[FBI]

:rolleyes:
That's only 4 years O_o

Like I said, i never heard about him... Just saw his name in a testimonial given
for nvidia's new line of graphic chips.

[Liebestoter]

As a former 'competitive' gamer, let me just say the 'professional gaming' scene is laughable; full of wannabes who all think they're the next Johnathan Wendel. Feh.

[bounty]

Being an active member in the quake community since 1997, starting with net quake and ending in net quake clan ring capture the flag, I was very active in following these phenomenal players, watching their demos, knew all of their stats, etc. Dennis was the first "star" who took gaming from a new technology novelty to a spectator event much like one would watch a football game or basketball game on television. His unbelievable aim, skill, and timing made him a joy to watch. I feel priveledged to know that I was among him and many others who enjoyed online gaming and saw it emerge from dust. The attraction for me too, was if i got lucky, i could even play on and with these people if i happen to be on a server they frequented. It would be the equivalent of playing a pickup game with your favorite basketball star. That made it exciting for me.

Thresh is an extremely intelligent guy though. He dominated quake 1 one on one death match, made a small but dominant debut in quake 2. But then he stopped at the peak of his career. He did not go on to play in quake 3. Some people didn't like his decision to not stay with it through the series. But I think a lot of the true fans(including myself) loved his decision. For years, even to this day, there is a new kid on the block (think Fatality quake3 for those that followed the community). To this day no matter how many victories the new star aquires, there is always that question that arises in peoples minds. "Could he have taken Thresh?" He basically made his online alias into sort of a enigma. I really think this was the coolest part of him.

In a more realistic sense though, he was also an amazingly smart business man. He used his fame to push his website and products that he would endorse. He built a lot of wealth off of his fame and ran with it. Something a lot of people his age and with his talent wouldn't have thought about, or been driven enough to do.

So hats off to this guy, i'm glad Paradox posted that. Brought back a lot of memories from "the good ole" days of gaming.

And sorry for such a long post, but i felt since i knew so much about the guy and his era, that i would share.

[BlackwooD]

Nice follow up bounty. :D Truely a remarkable tale. wish I could see that guy in action.....

[Opar]

Pffft. Hes not called Fatality. Its Fatal1ty. I played with him once... I killed him once!!! But he did pawn me badly :p

[rob444]

Thresh is an old Q2 player, he was the best at that time. He created a website after he stopped playing Q2 which is still running. (He was the best in duel)

[ino]

Thresh is actually and old Quakeworld player from U.S who was titled the worlds greatest Quake player and his clan Deathrow. Because they played some sponsored matches in the U.S.

Then a Swedish quake clan fron sthlm called Nine invited them to sthlm and all of a sudden they wasnt that great anymore :). They lost really bad, and came with a lot of excuses and stuff but it was fun to watch :)

But he is sure one of the gamers that has made most money. He even won John Carmacks Ferrari F50 in a qw tournament in vegas or something a looong time ago.

[extract]

a ferrari--fuck! thats noice!

now anyone who makes fun of you/us for playing video games all day have something to throw at them to say "im gonna be someone somday!"

:lol:

[ino]

Yeah all the "proffesional" gamers sure can make a living well maby not easy but it's doable if you travel alot and play. The only thing is that the pro gaming is beeing polluted and bloated just like the pro sports we have to day with stupid commercials and dumb stuff you need to do. Why not if you win you win this much money and or this computer and no strings attached instead of all the shit that is going on at the side as it is atm.

[rob444]

nine backed out of a game against our old clan, they were probably afraid to lose :p

[ino]

Well nine back then dont have a suck today in todays Quakeworld but they where real good back then. 10x better than thresh and the boys where.

today its dags and legeartis and the boys who rule.

[ZoomZoom]

/set god_mode 1

[Dookie]

yeah thresh was the firsrt actual PRO-gamer.
but i realy doubt that he made 11 million dollars on games, its near impossible. Journalists always writing mad numbers ;)
p.s. i made about 2000$ playing quake3. but i suck :)

[Shadow Dancer]

Is he the Michael Jordan of games or of FPSes?


There's a difference.



I would like to see him play Neocron, see how good he is when parashocked. :D

[dL9]

Yeah he would prolly quit after getting parakilled :p

[trigger hurt]

Nice follow up bounty. :D Truely a remarkable tale. wish I could see that guy in action.....

I have some old archived Thresh demos from quake 2. Course, you need quake2 installed to view them. His skill didnt come from all twitch...he had alot of smarts when it came to finding the best spot to wait for his victim. He also had the respawns of weapons/quad timed perfectly.

[RuButt]

lol.. swedes and koreans rule gaming.. he was just pushed up by media..



EDIT: Swedes > all

[tuxy]

i played q2 for about 5 years(any one still have it and fancy a game in europe pm, havent played it in years) so of course iv heard alot about this guy

sure he was a good player but most of it is just hype, hes well known because he knew how to create hype about him self not because of amazing gaming skills (althogh his stills were pritty decent)

[jernau]

Nice follow up bounty. :D Truely a remarkable tale. wish I could see that guy in action.....There were lots of videos of him playing. They are well worth digging out if you can find them as it was absolutely stunning how good he was. I think I may still have a vid of him beating the second best player in the world 100-3. There really was no-one to challenge him and as bounty says he quit at the right time as anyone that saw him play would find it very hard to believe anyone since could come close.

@Dookie - He really did make a shit-load of cash. There was at least one million pound prize and a half-million pound ferrari just for starters. The 11.5mil however is VC money for his company. For 2000 with a celebrity owner that's not a lot for an e-business.

[T72]

Top post bounty , Damm para u missed out on Q2 online??, RA2 sucked up 2 years of my life 8))