Thresh

Lore & Background

Fong began playing Doom at age 16 in 1993. He first chose the pseudonym 'Threshold of Pain', but due to an eight-character ID limit in many games, he went with 'Thresh'. He attended the Microsoft-sponsored Doom tournament Judgment Day 1995 in Seattle and finished first among 24 competitors. The highlight of his gaming career was at the Red Annihilation Quake tournament in 1997, where he defeated Tom 'Entropy' Kimzey 14 to -1 in the level E1M2 'Castle of the Damned' and won id Software CEO John Carmack's Ferrari 328. He retired in 1997 to focus on business ventures. On July 27, 2016, he was the second person inducted into the ESL Hall of Fame.

Reader's Guide

Fong was known for his reflexes, intuition and tactics. People coined the term 'Thresh ESP' to describe his knack for knowing what opponents were doing. In 1-on-1 deathmatch, he prioritized understanding the level and controlling vital items using timed runs to repeatedly hoard them from opponents, such as the rocket launcher and armor in Quake. He has been credited with popularizing the WASD key configuration commonly used in PC gaming.

Did You Know?

• At the peak of his gaming career in the mid-to-late 1990s, he earned approximately $100,000 a year from prize money and endorsements.
• Fong co-founded Xfire, an instant messenger and social networking site for gamers, which was acquired by Viacom for $102 million in April 2006.
• He also co-founded Lithium Technologies, a social customer relationship management company.
• Fong was born in Hong Kong on March 11, 1977, and emigrated to the United States at age 11, growing up in Los Altos, California.