Deep in the thick of the Evolution vendor booths, there are always a bunch of guys quietly whittling away. Every year they congregate at Evo and various other majors, with circuit boards, joysticks, and soldering irons. While most other vendors are selling their wares of parts, shirts, and art prints, these unsung heroes are selling their time, fixing joysticks or making joysticks work on more systems than they do out of the box.
These are the unsung heroes of events. These modders, a group of people that congregate around the Tech Talk forum here at Shoryuken.com, but meet up at nearly every major to take care of players’ needs before, during, and at times even after the event. They charge a pretty penny for parts and labor, but ultimately, are the guys to go to for the every man who either don’t know how to mod or don’t have the time and resources to do it themselves.
This year, when I arrived into the venue, these men were already busy, with stacks of arcade sticks waist high behind them, ready to mod. And they were all engrossed in their work, exchanging jokes amongst each other to keep the atmosphere lively as they worked. And they all seemed to enjoy the job.
While they are there to make money, it is often the community and being able to enjoy that aspect that continues to bring them out to events, where they could easily only take commissions online to save on overhead. John “DaRabidDuckie” Wade, a well known modder from Wisconsin, stated, “I wasn’t even going to show up to Evo, because it was getting harder for me to afford going to tournaments. I couldn’t even afford the flight to come out here. But then people were contacting me and saying they would pay me up front for work I would do for them at Evo, so the community literally paid for my flight ticket, my transportation, and half the hotel room. I have a lot of work I have to do to catch up to that, but it’s because of the community that I’m here.”
Victor “Vicko” Ramirez, a Las Vegas native who has been at most of the majors throughout the year, added, “I get to make a lot of friends here, I like traveling, resting on the plane. It’s fun and it’s an overall pleasant experience.”
However, for some, it’s for fun that can’t be found where they’re from. Matthew Gummo, when asked about why he comes to Evo to mod, stated, “There’s a slot machine here in Vegas called Goldfish, and every year, I find another revision to the game. The first year, it was Goldfish. Then there was a Goldfish 2, and then a third game. Then last year, I found Paradise Fishing, which was the exact opposite of Goldfish. I’m just modding sticks so I have money to play the slots.”
While all of them enjoy the community, and have fun doing these events in various ways, one of the biggest sacrifices they make is not being able to take part in the fun that we all take for granted–actually competing in the events. “I did start going to tournaments to mod while trying to also play in the events,” stated Gummo. “But it got to the point where the further I went into the tournament, the less time I had to mod, which makes it less beneficial to me. So, if I ever play, it’s usually just a side tournament.”
“I think it was two years ago that I decided I was finished with competing,” added Ramirez. “That whole last year I spent competing, I only entered Evo. For me, that was just a waste of time and money, and I’m definitely a lot more productive modding.”
With these types of events come some difficulties in doing their work, with time restraints being one of the biggest issues that exist. “I would say (one of the biggest issues is) the lack of sleep and just the overall pressure of making sure everyone is satisfied before I leave,” stated Ramirez, “because I could have an angry customer show up just before a tournament’s over when one of us needs to get on a plane. I try to cut it really close, so I don’t have to stay overnight on the last night of an event. I’ve missed a couple of flights due to this, so that’s a common problem that I have.”
Gummo, who is well known for his unique modifications, such as an arcade stick with an Ouya built into the casing, or a V-Tech Smile joystick modified to work on PlayStation 3, added, “When I’m at a tournament, I prefer standard modifications. I’m not scared of doing unique mods, but I like money, and I’m trying to get as many sticks modded as possible while I’m here.”
However, with all these sacrifices come a service that fills a huge void in a community that needs their gear properly tuned for events, assuring that nothing will go wrong during the course of a tournament. Gummo believes that having modders at events like Evo makes the tournament run a lot more smoothly, stating, “There aren’t a bunch of people begging to borrow sticks, and it makes life easier for the customer because they only have to carry around one stick while they’re here.”
“There have been circumstances where tournament organizers have needed us for something, such as an emergency repair, and having us there made a bad situation a lot easier to deal with,” added Wade. “Could Evo run without us? Yes, absolutely. But it’s one of those cases where when we’re around, it’s nice to have us there.”
But one issue that was found to be a problem this year was the change in venue for the finals, forcing them and other vendors to shut down a day earlier than expected. When asked about this, Wade stated, “I’m not going to lie, it hurts us a lot. We’re not able to talk to customers on Sunday, and we have to haul everything up to the hotel room to finish. We already have a hard time finishing up everyone’s sticks because there are so many people that want work done, which is a good problem to have. Last year, we were here two to three days after the event, either in a hotel room or at Vicko’s house to finish the workload. We’re likely to do that again this year.”
But when asked if they enjoyed doing this, they all agreed that it was worth the time and effort, and Ramirez even offered advice for the next generation of modders who may be brave enough to join them at their booth next time.
“Practice on something that’s yours. Don’t practice on a customer’s stick if you are not comfortable. You could take apart old electronics, controllers, radios, something you may not need anymore. Just get your soldering iron hot, get comfortable with it, find out your preferred heat range, and get rid of a lot of bad habits before you try to make a profession or a second job out of it.”
So the next time you see a group of guys at a major huddled around joysticks with soldering irons in hand, be sure to stop buy, shake their hands, and offer them tips or drinks to help keep them going. Without these guys, a lot of people would be stuck on outdated or broken hardware.
