Du Dang says he wasn’t the most popular or well-known kid when he lived in Wesley Chapel and went to Wiregrass Ranch High (WRH). But right now, he might just be the most famous graduate of WRH’s 2014 class.
The 20-year-old professional video gamer, who now lives in Tampa and is better known by his gamer tag “NuckleDu,” has won the 2016 Street Fighter V Capcom Cup championship.
In the world of professional video gaming, that’s a big deal. Dang flew out to Anaheim, CA, for the big tournament, and came home $230,000 richer after winning every best-of-5 match by either a 3-1 or 3-0 score. His purse was the largest in the history of fighting games, and his winning performance on Dec. 3 was televised live by ESPN 2.
Not bad for a kid who just five years ago was a reluctant player getting beat on a routine basis by his uncle. Today, he’s one of the top eSports players in the world.
“I was never really a gamer,’’ Dang said. “I hated the concept of fighting games. It was just up-down-left-right. But, I was playing my uncle and he kept beating me, so I started practicing and finally beat him.”
The son of Vietnamese parents, it was expected that Dang would study hard in school and become a doctor or an engineer, he says. His older brother and sister are both nursing students.
“I just wanted to keep getting good and kept playing,’’ Dang says. “It’s hard to convince your mom at age 17 to let you fly to a tournament.”
So hard, in fact, that Dang didn’t tell her he was flying to a tournament in Chicago. When he returned with prize money to help pay the bills, she changed her mind.
Dang has lived in tough places in Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi and Jacksonville, FL, and he grew up poor. That is changing now, and he wants to be careful with his newfound wealth.
“The win took away a lot of problems,’’ he says.
He also says that he wanted to invest his Capcom Cup winnings, but not before splurging on an SUV, which would help him get his dogs around town.
Onyx (a mastiff), Tieu Bach (a chihuahua) and Tofu (a pit bull) are Dang’s escape from the world of eSports. “They are family,’’ he says.
He has to be away from them more than he likes, due to the travel required to stay at the top of his game.
Playing mainly the Mike and Guile characters in Street Fighter V, Dang has no plans for letting up in what is left of the year. He has delivered a diagonal jump heavy kick to 2016, winning almost everything in sight during his breakout year.
After winning roughly $11,500 in prize money from 2012-15, according to esportsearnings.com, Dang has now pocketed more than a quarter of a million dollars in 2016 alone, thanks largely, but not only, to his big Capcom Cup haul.
He was the first American to win a big tournament like that in more than two years, he says. The tournament featured players from Japan, China, Singapore, France, Brazil, the United Kingdom and the U.S., as well as other countries.
That win was his third straight in a big tournament this year, and eighth overall, including a Canada Cup win in October that netted him another $6,900. All told, he has won 13 championships.
It’s definitely not as easy as he has been making it look, he says.
“There are definitely a lot of obstacles,’’ Dang says. “I missed my niece’s first steps. I have missed a lot of birthdays. You have to be willing to make sacrifices, and you have to have a strong head. I thought about quitting many times.”
The eSports genre – which is comprised of quickly growing competitive gaming leagues and tournaments – is entering the mainstream at a dizzying pace. In 2016, eSports are expected to become a $500-million business, and tournaments and championships are now being broadcast live on channels like ESPN. Your kids are as likely to watch their favorite players compete on Twitch.tv as you were to watch your favorite baseball players growing up.
Dang plays for a team called Team Liquid, which is sponsored by a number of companies, and was recently bought out by the NBA’s Golden State Warriors. Dang has met all of the Warriors players, and Golden State has been joined by other NBA teams, like the Orlando Magic and Washington Wizards, in investing in video gaming teams in an effort to reach younger audiences.
“It’s pretty amazing how it has grown,’’ Dang says. “It’s very overwhelming to play video games for a living. It’s pretty awesome.”
Dang hopes to grow along with the eSports industry. He continues to hone his craft on the Street Fighter platform (played on the Sony PlayStation 4), and is looking to continue his winning ways into 2017.
“I didn’t know until last year when I started winning everything that this is what I would be doing,’’ Dang says. “That’s when I started seeing real money. And this year, it’s just blown up.”
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