Dennis Fong (; born March 11, 1977), 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. He is a co-founder of Xfire, an instant messenger and social networking site for gamers, which was acquired by Viacom for 102 million in April 2006.
Playing career
thumb|Thresh (foreground) at a video game competition for a vendor at [[Comdex in 1997]]
Fong began playing Doom at the age of 16 in 1993. He first chose the pseudonym "Threshold of Pain", which referred to the ability to withstand enemy fire and suffering. However, as many games had an eight-character ID limit, he went with "Thresh" and liked the word's meaning of "to strike repeatedly".
The highlight of his gaming career was at the Red Annihilation tournament in 1997. 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.
At the peak of his gaming career in the middle to late 1990s, he earned approximately $100,000 (~$ in ) a year from prize money and endorsements.
Business ventures
Fong and his brother Lyle started GX Media, the parent company of Gamers.com, FiringSquad, and Lithium Technologies. Fong was the CEO of the company and Lyle was the chief technical officer. The company grew to 100 employees.
In 1999, GX Media raised over US$11 million from CMGI and built gamers.com, a popular web portal.
GX Media spun off Lithium Technologies, a leading Social CRM platform provider that counts AT&T, PlayStation, Verizon, Comcast and Best Buy as some of its customers. The company has raised over $40 million from Benchmark Capital, Emergence Capital, Shasta Ventures, DAG Ventures and Tenaya Capital.
Fong went on to co-found Xfire, an instant messaging client designed for online gaming, that was acquired by Viacom in April 2006 for 102 million. In 2007, Fong founded Raptr, a social network and related software client for gamers. The company has raised over $12 million in financing from Accel Partners.
In May 2021, Fong backed Bright Star Studios in a $2 million investment deal for the company's massively multiplayer online sandbox game Ember Sword.
Fong serves as an adviser for WeGame.com Inc and previously served in the same capacity for the defunct Booyah, Inc.
Playing style
Fong was known for his reflexes, intuition and tactics while playing. People coined the term "Thresh ESP" to describe his unnatural knack for knowing exactly what his opponents were doing. In 1 on 1 deathmatch, he made it a priority to understand the level and "control" vital items using timed runs to repeatedly hoard them from opponents, such as the rocket launcher and armor in Quake.
Fong has been credited with popularizing the WASD key configuration commonly used in PC gaming.
Personal life
Fong was born in Hong Kong on March 11, 1977 and lived in Beijing for a while. His parents, David and Lena Fong, were educated in America and are US citizens. His interests include playing roller hockey.