It was a true watershed moment for esports, and it originated entirely out of grassroots momentum. As the scene grew, and the regional smack talk percolated, these fledgling gamers felt the need to settle scores.Īnd so, in 1996, Cole and 63 other competitors ventured to the Sunnyvale Golfland for Battle by the Bay.
Some of the earliest esports kings were crowned at Chinatown Fair in New York City, Super Just Games outside Chicago, and the Southern Hills Golfland in Orange County. Fighting-game hot spots popped up around the country. In the mid-’90s, you could claim to be the best Street Fighter player and have that actually mean something. They came with intricate button inputs and rewarded precise timing. These games were much more technical than your Marios and your Zeldas. Capcom, and Cole’s speciality, Street Fighter. This was the genesis of what we now refer to as the fighting-game community, or FGC, which remains one of the oldest fixtures in competitive gaming: one-against-one battles in games such as Mortal Kombat, Marvel vs. You just wanted to try your style against other people.” guys would start coming up here, or we’d go down there. “I had to hear it from the homies-my boys had to tell me what was going on,” Cole remembers now. It was confirmation that his legend had grown far beyond the Bay Area and, more important, that he still had something to prove. Because Cole had no internet access, he relied on a network of friends who relayed the message-board slander. On ancient web forums, they claimed that Cole’s game would never hold up in SoCal, that his gambits could be easily countered by any player worth their salt. So you can understand why Cole took it personally when a cadre of Street Fighter players from the other end of the state-Los Angeles, in particular-started doubting his talent. All he wanted-all he could reasonably hope for-was dominion over his local arcade.
Cole wasn’t competing for million-dollar prize pools or hefty sponsorships, or international fame. This was long before esports morphed into the industry it is today. Most who encountered Cole quickly found themselves 25 cents poorer. Standing in front of a crusty Street Fighter II cabinet, he would take on an endless stream of competitors, from clueless middle schoolers to yuppies on their lunch break, and beat them all. It was the early 1990s, and Cole often found himself with a pocketful of quarters at the Golfland arcade in San Jose. J ason Cole didn’t own a computer, but he was fairly certain that he was the best Street Fighter player in California.
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