Queens native Derek “iDom” Ruffin is a professional esports athlete and world champion of the 2019 Capcom Cup, one of the top-tier events in the fighting game world, for which he won a $250,000 prize.
Fighting game controllers are not like the handheld Xbox or PlayStation styles you might see at home, but bespoke programmable builds the size of large coffee-table books.“So many people show up and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, you’re just here, randomly, at this place in Brooklyn?!’” Ruffin said. “I’m like, yeah, I live here! This is not out of the ordinary for me. I’m just trying to hang out and play some games.
“It’s like running into pros at a park,” Ruffin said. “You see them in their natural habitat just grinding. And they’re usually open to play Joe Schmo from the gas station because they want to see how they match up.”Everyone interviewed at Next Level described the local tournaments as places to sharing knowledge and skills. If another player destroys you with a set of moves you’ve never seen before, you can turn to them and ask how they did it, and, crucially, how to defend against it.
Sebastian Armendariz, who was knocked out relatively early, watched Ruffin, known there as iDom, take on another top player, Creaky Axe. Ruffin sat upright just inches from the screen with his controller in his lap, blinking only when the game animations allowed a reprieve.
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