The 1997 Red Annihilation Tournament was one of the first major eSports events, which is remembered as Dennis Fong (Thresh)'s greatest success. The Quake tournament which concluded with a showdown of the top 16 players in Atlanta, Georgia for that year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) saw Fong defeat Tom Kimzey (Entropy) in a dominant 14-1 victory. For victory in this tournament. Fong was subsequently awarded the prize John D. Cormack II's 1987 Ferrari 328 GTS.
Background[]
The beginnings of modern eSports had been established with the support of Wide-Area Network technology for games developed by id Software. Throughout 1994 and 1995, early organised eSports had been established in id Software titles such as Doom II: Hell on Earth, The Ultimate Doom and Hexen: Beyond Heretic.
1995 saw DWANGO, id Software, GT Interactive Software and Microsoft all partner in creating the Deathmatch '95 in attempt to define the world's best eSports player. From this tournament, Dennis Fong (Thresh) was crowned the first eSports champion and subsequently would become regarded as the first "professional gamer"