While running GX Media, Fong was also editor-in-chief at the video gaming site FiringSquad, wrote a monthly column in the popular PC Gamer magazine and co-authored the official Quake II strategy guide with Jonathan Mendoza and Kenn Spear Hwang.

Fong's Ferrari was parked in the lobby of the GX Media offices. In 1999, GX Media raised over US$11 million from CMGI and built, a popular web portal. Fong was the CEO of the company and Lyle was the chief technical officer.

Business ventures įong and his brother Lyle started GX Media, the parent company of, FiringSquad, and Lithium Technologies. Fong has also been featured in Rolling Stone for his gaming prowess. On July 27, 2016, Thresh was the second person to be inducted into the ESL Hall of Fame. He retired in 1997 to focus on his business ventures. Īt the peak of his gaming career in the middle to late 1990s, he earned approximately $100,000 a year from prize money and endorsements. He and Tom 'Entropy' Kimzey emerged from a crowded field to face off in the Quake level E1M2 'Castle of the Damned', where Thresh defeated Entropy 14 to -1. The highlight of his gaming career was at the Red Annihilation tournament in 1997. Second-place finisher Entropy is in the background above Thresh.įong attended the Microsoft-sponsored Doom tournament Judgment Day 1995 in Seattle and defeated Ted 'Merlock' Peterson to finish first among 24 competitors from across the US and United Kingdom. Thresh in the Ferrari he won and John Carmack. However, as many games had an eight-character ID limit, he went with ' Thresh' and liked the word's meaning of 'to strike repeatedly'. He first chose the pseudonym Threshold of Pain, which referred to the ability to withstand enemy fire and suffering. Playing career įong began playing Doom at the age of 16 in 1993. Fong is recognized by the Guinness World Records as the first professional gamer. In his playing career his highest profile victory came in 1997 at the Red Annihilation Quake tournament, where he placed first and won id Software CEO John D.

He also co-founded Lithium Technologies, a social customer relationship management (CRM) company. He is a co-founder of Xfire, an instant messenger and social networking site for gamers, which was acquired by Viacom for US$102 million in April 2006. Thresh (foreground) at a video game competition for a vendor at Comdex in 1997ĭennis Fong ( traditional Chinese: 方鏞欽 simplified Chinese: 方镛钦 pinyin: Fāng Yōngqīn Jyutping: fong1 jung4 jam1), better known by his online alias Thresh, is an American businessman and retired professional player of the first-person shooter video games Quake and Doom.

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