As the fighting game genre grows as a esport, more and more attention is being brought into the community. That attention and growth has however led to some changes, both big and small, in the community itself.
In a recent article, The Hundreds’ Justin Davis sat down with Kevin “Dieminion” Landon, EG|Christopher “NYChrisG” Gonzales, RB|Daryl “Snake Eyez” Lewis, and Steve “TastySteve” Scott, to get their insights on the growth of the community and the genre.
The thoughts that these players share range from both general insights to more personal stories. For an example of the latter, Dieminion talk about holding multiple jobs, and just sneaking out to the old Chinatown Fair arcade to play games before Empire Arcadia opened his eyes to the possibility of playing games for a living. Similarly, ChrisG talks about just doing odd jobs in between going right back into the the arcade, with the latter being his escape from his situation in life, struggling as a kid with no financial means to get a college education.
TastySteve on the other hand shares stories about traveling to compete and play fighting games without actually telling his parents. He’d save money from doing part time jobs just to be able to go around and compete, without telling his mother.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Snake Eyez talks about having come in primarily from playing online on consoles. He talks about building a reputation as a fearsome Zangief player who played on pads, something that eventually led to Red Bull setting up a meeting with him and eventually sponsoring him.
Snake Eyez also touches on how the grassroots nature of the fighting game community may have, at times, hindered companies from going into the genre. Snake Eyez says it’s possible that companies may be reluctant to sponsor certain players if they don’t want that player’s “look” to represent the company.
Another issue that ChrisG brings up is how many players aren’t exactly aware of their worth. This means that many players, especially those who aren’t really established names yet, get the short end of the stick when talking to sponsors. He brings up how certain sponsors wouldn’t even want to pay for things such as travel expenses. He also says that this is why he’s been without a sponsor for so long (before signing with Evil Geniuses)–he’s been waiting for a sponsor that would truly be beneficial for him.
Of course, that’s not all that they talk about, head on over to The Hundreds to read the rest.
Source: The Hundreds