Esports Athletes You’ll Tell Your Kids About
Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for Blizzard Entertainment
In today’s age of competition, regardless of if it’s includes a ball or a computer screen, we compete to find out who the best of the best is. No matter who you ask how you measure something like that may differ from person to person. Maybe it’s the one with the biggest paycheck, or who wears the most championship rings. For us it’s all about the legacy and any of these things could contribute to it. We asked some of the CheckpointXP staff who they would be telling their kids about in 10 or more years.
Christopher “GeT_RiGhT” Alesund
Counter Strike: Global Offensive
GeT-RiGhT may be the best CS:GO player in history. His game sense, and skill across multiple iterations of the game, could be unmatched when it comes to stacking up across any player in the history of the game. While GeT-RiGhT has seen some of the highest highs of the sport, he has also experienced some of the lowest lows, suffering more upsets and losses in finals than almost any other player who competed as long as he did. He cemented his legacy after his team went 87-0 on LAN maps from August 2012 to April 2013, reaching five Major finals (and winning ESL One Cologne 2014), before stepping down from Ninjas in Pyjamas after spending seven years playing on the team.There may be more technical players of CS:GO in the game’s history, or even more decorated competitors, but GeT-RiGhT is the Counter Strike every man who was able to be part of a vaunted history that saw him dominate from the moment he stepped on the scene as a 16 year old. – Ric Hogerhiede
Sung-hyeon “JJoNak” Bang
Overwatch League
Whenever I think back to the athletes my dad would talk about before I really had any idea who they were or why they were important it’s names of guys who changed the game. In the first year of the Overwatch League JJoNak did just that. He’s a star player of the New York Excelsior and in the first season was rarely seen on a character other than Zenyetta, that makes him a support main. No one told JJoNak that though. He put up damage done numbers that put DPS mains and flex players alike to shame. He could hit fully charged headshots like a Widowmaker and still keep his team topped off. His healing numbers did not suffer as his damage numbers soared. He was referred to as the third damage dealer. JJoNak earned the first ever league Most Valuable Player for the way his Zenyatta played transcended the way the hero was perceived. Anyone who played Zenyatta had to rise to JJoNak’s level, if you weren’t dishing out the damage on top of the heals you were holding your team back. There will never be another like him. – Robbie Landis
Yiliang “Doublelift” Peng
League of Legends
It would be difficult to pick a League of Legends athlete and not choose Doublelift. A lot of people would argue for Faker, and reasonably so. He’s absolutely a better player, in fact, Faker is the best League of Legends player of all time. He is the GOAT, no dispute. But Doublelift has the personality to go along with it. He talks trash, he never forgets that it’s about fun, and he’s won 4 consecutive LCS splits. He may have said it best when he mumbled on camera, “I’m the best, everyone else is trash.” – Joe Sloan
Dominique “Sonicfox” McLean
Fighting Game Community
The Fighting Game Community is riddled with amazing personalities, and none more dynamic than Dominique “Sonicfox” McLean. For as much as I would love to put veterans like Ryan Hart or Kazunoko in this list, it’s hard to deny the impact that SonicFox has had on the entire FGC. Originally starting out in NetherRealm games like Injustice and Mortal Kombat X, SonicFox stretched his catalogue of games to Dragonball Fighterz and even Smash over the past couple of years. Coupled with his talent as a player is his complete subversion of what a esport athlete is. Nowhere near the taciturn gamer bro stereotype, SonicFox is always radiant, smiling and wears his sexual identities as a “Queer furry” proudly. His dominance in the space is second to none, he’s a favorite in virtually every bracket he enters and is someone that’s left an indelible mark on the culture of esports. – Norris Howard
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