Playing to Win

by Steven Greco

Unbeknownst to the people who walked along the commercial strip of Bay Parkway in Brooklyn, within the walls  of Game Pad Electronics, a serious battle was raging.

A stillness settled over the crowd inside as the spectators  watched, with their eyes glued to the match, the competitors slug it out. Suddenly, the stillness was broken as Sanford Kelly, with a well-timed press of a button, placed a swift low kick to his opponent, knocking him out, the announcer screaming an enthusiastic: “K.O.”

His opponent, Rahsaan Dusuau, looked helplessly at the monitor as his character fell. The crowd cheered and applauded. Kelly placed his controller down, shook the hand of his opponent, and secured the top prize of $350.

Across the world, a culture based on fighting video games is gaining followers. For some, it is just a hobby, something to keep them entertained as a small, fun distraction from the other aspects of their lives. For others, it is their livelihood.

Once again Kelly took first place at the tournament for Street Fighter IV, one of the most popular video game series in the genre ever created. Throughout the entire day the room was packed as the original 50 participants were slowly whittled down to just Kelly and Dusuau.

These players devote every waking moment to playing in the tournament circuit and make a living off the winnings. They spend their time meticulously playing the game, breaking down every little aspect of the characters within in it. They learn how many frames per second a move takes, which moves can beat out the moves of other characters, which characters should be played more aggressively or more defensively.

They play over and over again so that their hands become accustomed to the movements on their joysticks, till they can perform even the most intricate of attack patterns with muscle memory alone. “The hardest part is to keep up with the high level play,” said Michael Mendoza, known throughout the community for his aggressive play style in the game Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 as well as his commentary on match videos. They eat, sleep and breathe fighting games, day in and day out.

Most of these players started out simply playing the games in their local area. As the average age of the players is late-20s, the majority of them were teenagers during the arcade craze of the 1980s. As such most went from playing casually to competitively once they discovered the tournament scene.

Mendoza recounts how he was introduced to the scene. “ I used to just play Marvel Super Heroes back in the laundrymat days, chillin with the homies,” said Mendoza, a native of the Bronx. “And I got interested, and when I discovered the Internet, I typed it in, and I found old videos of a Midwest championship and I seen what the players where doing and I got an instant interest. I never knew that people could compete at that level.” That is when he began to participate and win tournaments. Over the past five years, and through the Internet, he has become as famous as the players that inspired him to play.

It’s easy to see why one might think this kind of life might sound attractive. Playing video games for a living sounds like any child’s dream come true. However as fighting games are a very niche genre in a wide selection of games, it’s actually not as easy as one may think.

Only the top players can really make living off of it as the larger tournaments are few and far between, and the smaller local tournaments don’t carry very large payouts.

Take Kelly,  28 from Brooklyn, with his win at the Gamepad Tournament for example. Fifty people entered at $10 per person that would give a total pot of $500. Tournament winnings are generally split as 70 percent to first place, 20 percent to second, and 10 percent to third. The other 47 people get nothing.

As such, Kelly’s win made him $350. This wouldn’t even cover most people’s rent, and the next tournament being run here isn’t for another month.

He has to scour online bulletin boards and postings and try to find as many other local tournaments he can, and then win them, in order to make enough money to balance out his cost of living.

To add to that burden, the bigger paying tournaments are out of state, which means not only does he have make enough to keep a roof over his head and eat, but also needs to get the money for plane tickets and hotel rooms.

In the long run, the life as a player simply allows him to live, since the winnings average out to what could be made at a day job.

However it’s not about making large amounts of money to most of these players. The lifestyle in and of itself affords these players with opportunities they wouldn’t have working behind the counter at a local Starbucks.

They have traveled the country, and in some instances the world, in search of bigger and better competition, putting their livelihood and reputations on the line. “My career highlight is getting players to progress and get better from playing me. It’s not what I win per say, it’s about how I’ve helped the people around me,” said Kelly.

Arturo Sanchez, 28 of Brooklyn, is also a well known player for his exploits in Capcom Vs. SNK 2, another fighting game branched from the Street Fighter Series. This past year he has spent quite some time in Japan, meeting players and training, and learning their style of play. “It’s easy to fall into the gamer lifestyle and start traveling. Since I’ve started playing I’ve traveled to four different countries. My favorite place is Japan since the arcade scene isn’t dead and the competition is off the chain,” exclaimed Sanchez.

The only thing that matters to these players is the competition, so long as there are new challengers to keep the scene growing, these world warriors will continue to learn and grow too. Kelly summed up his mindset, one most of the players share: “ I love competition, competition keeps me going, once the competition stops, I stop.”