Meet Dennis “Thresh” Fong, the first professional gamer ever

Before Esports became what it is right now, and before professional gamer had any meaningful meaning, there was Dennis. Back in 1993, Dennis “Thresh” made a name for himself that many talked about for years.

There’s no doubt that DOOM, Fong’s main game, was already successful with hundreds of competitive gamers out there, but no one outmatched Dennis who dedicated all of his time at the age of 16 for DOOM, DOOM and more DOOM ever since its release in 1993. Fong quickly transitions from a boy addicted to arcades to a successful businessman making the best out of his gaming proft.

“A professional gamer is anyone who makes money, even winning 10 bucks on a Street Fighter game at Seven-Eleven,” joked Nick Allen, the panel moderator of “The Professional Gamer” at GDC 2016. In fact, the latest Street Fighter tournaments had hundreds of thousands of dollars as prizes, and all of this recognition and huge prize money for professional gamers goes back to Fong himself who entered Guinness Book of World Records as the first established Professional Gamer in 1993. Even the Wall Street Journal called him to do an interview for his great skills.

“I was in my pajamas one morning when they called,” said Fong. “They wanted to do a story about online gaming, and they heard that I was one of the better player”. Fong is now 39 and runs his own business thanks to the big amount of money he made by just appearing sometimes at certain events.  “I went from dragging a 40 pound monitor to LAN parties to getting paid thousands of dollars to make appearances,” he remembered. “My life was accelerating at this rapid rate”.

“Thresh” retired from the professional gaming scene at the age of 22 and went on with his life at that point. In fact, many Esports players are retiring at the age of mid-20s right now. For that many veterans have been advising players to invest their money that they make out of games, so they don’t get left in the street at one point in the future.