Dennis Fong
1990’s Era Gamer
Class of 2010 Inductee
Dennis Fong, better known by his online alias Thresh, is an American businessman and retired professional player of the first-person shooter video games Quake and Doom.
He is a co-founder of Xfire, an instant messenger and social networking site for gamers, which was acquired by Viacom for US$102 million in April 2006.
He also co-founded Lithium Technologies, a social customer relationship management (CRM) company.
In his playing career his highest profile victory came in 1997 at the Red Annihilation Quake tournament, where he placed first and won id Software CEO John Carmack’s Ferrari 328.
Wikipedia Link:
Playing style:
Fong was known for his reflexes, intuition and tactics while playing.
People coined the term “Thresh ESP” to describe his unnatural knack for knowing exactly what his opponents were doing.
In 1 on 1 deathmatch, he made it a priority to understand the level and “control” vital items using timed runs to repeatedly hoard them from opponents, such as the rocket launcher and armor in Quake.
Fong has been credited with popularizing the WASD key configuration commonly used in PC gaming.
Fong is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the first professional gamer.
https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/first-person-to-be-a-professional-video-gamer