A History of Pro-Gaming's Most Famous Athletes

Video games have always been a place for competition. Ever since arcade games evolved into the home console, and eventually modem based and online games, we’ve been trying to take each other down a notch. From the beginning of Doom and Quake to the techno RTS luster of StarCraft and Dota we run down the cream of the crop.

Somewhere along the way a whole new type of gamer emerged, one with talent and the ability to know a game inside and out. Millions of players have entered the competitive arena since its inception but only a few have truly dominated at their respective games.

We take a look at a few of the most notable pro gaming athletes and how they changed this emerging arena of sports around the world. There are tons of emerging pro gaming athletes out there and great games that are not covered herein - we take a look back so that we can be informed as we go forward. Today’s up and coming gaming legends stand on the shoulders of giants.

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In the beginning arcade gamers supported a billion dollar business where kids would spend twenty-four hours a day popping quarters into arcade consoles like Billy Mitchell. Mitchell played Centipede for 47 hours straight to break the world record.

Billy Mitchell became the first gaming celebrity in America. Mitchell's partnership with the famous arcade Twin Galaxies began the spectacle of arcade gaming. Mitchell was perhaps made even more famous to contemporary audiences by his appearance in the documentary King of Kong. Twin Galaxies promoted not only the arcade business but also its record-breaking gamers. Arcades eventually fell to a flawed payment system and were shuttered. It took until1986 when Nintendo’s NES console made it into American homes, that the beginnings the next big wave of video games and the tentative beginnings or pro gaming where to blossom.

While there were a few novelty tournaments during the period, none were what we would consider competitive gaming in a modern context. It took a nearly a decade, and the a new kind of game, to bring gaming to a larger audience.

Doom brought the first competitive side of gaming. Introducing LAN games, deathmatch, co-op, modem multiplayer, and created the base that competitive gaming would build on. With a huge release and millions of units sold, Doom II began what we would consider modern tournaments in 1994. At E3's Red Annihilation Tournament, Dennis Fong showed that you could actually win stuff, cool stuff, when he won and rode off in none other than John Carmack’s Ferrari.

Showing that, yes, you could actually win more than stickers and Mountain Dew by playing games, gamers and games kept getting more competitive and leagues got their start. The first and biggest was the Cyber-Athlete Professional League, or CPL, that began the push to bring competitive gaming and its athletes to the forefront.

Dennis (Thresh) Fong was the first pro gamer of a new age. Winning John Carmack’s car was an awesome start, but moreover Thresh was a well-adjusted guy with who wasn’t a hermit and could speak intelligently. All these things were stereotype busters at the time

In 1999 The Washington Post asked Fong about his play style, "Obviously I don't really have ESP," Fong said by way of reassurance. "My secret is that I tend to soak up everyone else's tricks. I remember tendencies and angles and I integrate all of them. That's my edge."

Thresh also got the first taste of celebrity in the West “He gets autograph requests in the Comp USA parking lot, and his beauty-queen girlfriend - Miss Chinatown San Francisco 1994 - gets jealous of his mass appeal.”

Fong went on to become a successful entrepreneur, using his tournament winnings to eventually found several successful internet and technology companies including Lithium Technologies, Xfire and Raptr.

Manuel “Grubby” Scenkhuizen, a Dutch pro-gamer, is one the most talented and famous Warcraft 3 players of all time. After winning his first tournament at 17 he became the head of the 4Kings clan. 4Kings is one of the first iconic eSports teams of the era, and with Grubby's skill at StarCraft, he was able to compete effectively in South Korea.

Winning over 30 gold medals in major events, including six world championships, he is still, most incredibly, holding strong against the domination of South Korean and Chinese players.

Grubby may be most notably remembered for his rivalries. The biggest of which being the great Chinese player Xiaofeng Li (“Sky”) was so compelling and close that it inspired the feature length documentary Beyond the Game.

Counter-Strike was the most important game in the West for over a decade starting in 1999. Its balanced play and visceral experience was entertaining to watch and challenging to master. Spawning an entire generation of eSports athletes.

Patrik (Forest) Lindberg from Sweden headed team Fnatic in 2009 and led it to become the highest earning in Counter-Strike history. This was at a time when the game had been out for nearly a decade and seemed to be fading fast. During this period Lindberg was the most celebrated eSports figure outside of Asia. Forest took in over 50 gold medals and is easily regarded as the game's best player.

Ever heard of a game called Dota 2? You know the one with the biggest prize pool in history? Well once upon a time Defense of the Ancients (Dota) was just a mod for Warcraft 3, it had a large following but in 2005 it hadn’t made it into major competitions yet.

More than any other player the Russian Ivan “Vigoss” Shinkarev helped thrust Dota to the forefront. Fronting a team called Virtus Pro, Vigoss let an ultra aggressive strategy that forced the game to become more competitive. Vigoss was named “King of the Gankers” for his perception and planning of group kills (ganks).

Vigoss helped grow what would spawn the two most important – and profitable – eSports games, League of Legends and Dota 2. As Dota and its progeny spread through China Vigoss inspired countless eSports athletes to get their start.

South Korea, between 1998 and 2010, was StarCraft crazy.

It was the most highly competitive gaming scene in history with big money and high status to pro-gamers. Television broadcasts and pervasive Internet cafes made StarCraft a household name.

The highest earning and most dominant StartCraft player of all time is Lee Young Ho (Flash), winning over $400,000 in tournament wins and hundreds of thousands more in endorsements and contracts.

Flash is not only known for his longevity in the sport but his incredible 70 percent win rate that still holds the record as the highest win rate in history. Lee was given all sorts of names for his ridiculous dominance of his competition, some of the nicer ones being “Final Boss,” “The Ultimate Weapon” and finally “God.” While Flash dominated much of the field he couldn’t match the greatest StarCraft player to ever live, Boxer.

Jonathan “Fatal1ty” Wendel is considered one of the world’s first professional gamers. He has the largest total winnings with $454,544 earned from 35 tournaments over the last decade. Garnering major sponsorships and widely regarded as the best first person shooter player to ever live.

Wendel did more for pro-gaming in America than any other, making eSports and pro-gaming seem like something kids could actually aspire too and have a profitable career at. He not only got exposure from mainstream media like The New York Times and 60 Minutes, he was career minded and always professional. He treated gaming like the proffesional career it would become.

Lim Yo Hwan (SlayerS_BoxeR) is undoubtedly the greatest player in eSports history. As South Koreans packed stadiums to watch StarCraft competitions Boxer gave them the knuckle biting, winning by the skin of his teeth matches his rivals were not prepared for. Fans were crazy about him.

When Boxer won his first major tournament in 1999, he did it with the greatly underpowered and widely disregarded Terran forces, turning the game on its head. Boxer is best known for his intense rivalries and close wins. He was signed to an $180,000 contract – a record at the time – and destroyed his competition in grand fashion. More than that, Boxer was the first great hero of gaming, a symbol.

"In the NBA, Michael Jordan was but one athlete, but had the influencing power beyond that of a mere basketball player,” wrote PGR21.com’s Seiji. “It is safe to say that because of his presence, the NBA grew rapidly and basketball was no longer the American game, but an international sport. Would it be an overstatement if one were to say that Lim Yo Hwan has a value like Michael Jordan? The greatest significance Lim Yo Hwan has towards e-sports is that he has transformed it from a festival of mere maniacs to a mainstream culture that is now broadcasted by the media. His value can be seen as he raised the understanding of what was once considered as a mere childish game to the dignified acceptance by all as part of the mainstream culture."

Boxer did the most for eSports athletes and the future of eSports by laying the groundwork for the gaming heros who would come, somone's got to be first.

Justin Wong has been competing and winning in the fighting game scene for over a decade. Justin's combination of skill and dedication were honed over years playing at New York City's Chinatown Fair arcade.

While Justin is best at classic 2d fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Street Fighter the early Street Fighter series, he also dabbles in Tekken 3d, taking top stops at the Ultimate Fight Game Tournament (2012) and East Coast Throwdown (2012).

Justin has made a name for himself in making seemingly impossible comebacks. At this year's Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament at EVO, Justin lost early in the tournament to Job "EMP Flocker" Figuerora only to work his way up and out of the loser bracket, wins the loser finals and gets himself into the grand finals. Justin faces off against "EMP Flocker" in a rematch for the win, Justin lost but only by a thread, making himself the people's champ and showing a come-from-behind was not impossible.

At this year’s Dota 2 competition, The International 3 (TI3), last year’s winners were the team to beat.

Headed by the Ukraine’s Danil (Dendi) Ishutin, they were unable to take the top spot.

Dendi and his team have earned 22 gold medals going into TI3 and even with the second spot earned $632,370, not too bad. Dendi’s approach to the game lies somewhere between “idiotic and chaotic.” Beyond his powers of perception he’s innovative, individualistic and so far, very successful.

Dendi and team Na’Vi may have not taken home the TI3 top spot this year but he’s been in the game a long time and will defiantly be back.