Gamers Who Lost It At Tournaments

Professional gamers apply their skills in numerous different ways. For some, their career takes the form of regular live streams or edited YouTube videos where they play the latest games by themselves or with a handful of friends. Other gamers, though, fall into a more competitive spectrum of the field — esports. For decades, professional gaming tournaments were minor events with meager monetary gain. In the last decade, though, professional video game competitions have quickly become a part of mainstream sports entertainment. Tournaments garner multi-million dollar prizes and are sometimes even broadcast on national TV.

Still, the massive spectacle and elevated professionalism of these esports tournaments hasn't eliminated one of the most common elements of competitive gaming — emotion. Whether they're jumping out of their seats with anger or elation, even the most high-ranking professional gamers have found themselves losing their minds and flailing around at the results of their tournament matches. Here are some of the most iconic examples of professional gamers who absolutely lost it at tournaments.

Part of what has kept Fortnite a massively popular and regularly played game since it launched in 2017 has been its steady flow of new content through massive seasonal updates. Each season of Fortnite brings with it map changes, new game modes, and a variety of surprising new weapons and items to utilize in battle. Many of these additions end up pleasing fans immensely, but one new piece of equipment that was added in the middle of 2019 only proved to frustrate fans of the game.

The launch of Season 10 in August 2019 included the addition of a new mobile mech suit called the B.R.U.T.E. that could fire volleys of rockets, dash through buildings, activate overshields, and more. It was an insanely overpowered tool that frustrated even professional players, including Jack "CouRage" Dunlop. When the professional Fortnite player was killed by a group of B.R.U.T.E. machines in a tournament, he slammed his desk, screamed about the mechs, and promptly quit the tournament. Fellow players Tfue, Cloak, and Bugha joined him, though they didn't exhibit quite as much frustration.

Some professional fighting game players stand out not only for their skill but also for their unique personalities or unforgettable characteristics. A shining example of this combination of skill and quirkiness is professional Ultra Street Fighter 4 player Lee "Poongko" Chung Gon. The Korean fighting game player is well known as one of the best Seth players in the world, sweeping tournaments and crushing competitors with ease. Every now and then, though, the odds are against him and he's placed in a tough situation. During these moments of stress, Poongko unleashes his limiters and lets everyone know he's getting serious by literally taking his shirt off.

This bizarre trait became an unforgettable aspect of Poongko's personality, and at EVO 2015, Abel player Onisan took advantage of that. During a set between the two, Onisan egged Poongko on by removing his own shirt and throwing it onto Poongko's shoulders. The crowd didn't think Poongko would respond favorably, but when he removed his shirt as well, it led to one of the most heated and uncomfortably under-dressed moments of EVO history.

There's a unique atmosphere to the fighting game community that really can't be matched by any other section of the professional gaming world. Part of what makes it such a unique corner of the gaming community is the casual, wild, and sometimes cartoonish atmosphere that permeates the community. There are characters in the fighting game community. Some are underdog babyfaces who you can't help but root for. Others, however, are rude and overconfident bad guys that bring some much-needed venom to the stage at whichever tournament they attend.

When it comes to community bad guys, none are quite as well known as Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez, who owes his stardom to his years of impressive performances in Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3. The hot-headed fighting game player knew he was the best, and scoffed at anyone who dared think otherwise. One of the best on-camera examples of Filipino Champ's boisterous attitude comes from a match against Wolfkrone at Winter Brawl X, where the Marvel vs Capcom 3 villain jumped from his seat and screamed in victory for minutes after beating his opponent in a tight set.

Plenty of standard Xbox, PlayStation, and GameCube controllers have been flung and tossed and smashed over the years, but it takes an unprecedented level of salt and frustration to destroy something even more expensive — a fight stick.

While Super Smash Bros. players use standard GameCube controllers, professional players in other fighting games like Street Fighter or Guilty Gear often use much bigger fight stick controllers that emulate an arcade cabinet set-up with large buttons and an extra long joystick. These tools often cost well over $100 and are also usually customized precisely by each player.

That didn't stop Sanford Kelly from destroying his, though. In an Ultra Street Fighter 4 match against Rico Suave in 2014, an insanely close defeat caused Sanford to lose his cool, walking away from the console and promptly throwing his fight stick against the ground. Players at the scene couldn't help but make light of the situation, with a healthy amount of memes spawning based on it soon afterward.