Queens native Derek “iDom” Ruffin is a professional esports athlete and world champion of the 2019 Capcom Cup, one of the top-tier events in the fighting game world, for which he won a $250,000 prize.
Ruffin has competed in Japan, South Africa, Qatar, the United Kingdom and nearly every major U.S. city. He specializes in one-on-one fighting games, specifically Street Fighter, where he favors Manon, a character who practices judo and ballet.
He’s also just a guy from Jamaica, Queens, who plays video games with his friends.
Ruffin, 27, regularly drops in on local tournaments at game shops around the city as a way of keeping his skills sharp ahead of pro competitions like this weekend’s Red Bull Kumite, a massive, prestigious global Street Fighter tournament that’s being held in New York for the first time at the Greenpoint Terminal Warehouse.
Derek “iDom” Ruffin
Daniel Weiss / Red Bull
He visited Next Level, a nondescript trading card store located between a deli and tax preparer on Fourth Avenue in Prospect Park, on Wednesday to play in the Next Level Battle Circuit being held in the back of the store.
Players can pay $20 to enter a double-elimination bracket-style competition against anyone who shows up. That typically includes new gamers who’ve only been in the scene for a few months, as well as some of the best players in the world, like Ruffin.
Fighting game controllers are not like the handheld Xbox or PlayStation styles you might see at home, but bespoke programmable builds the size of large coffee-table books.
Photo by Ryan Kailath / Gothamist
“So many people show up and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, you’re just here, randomly, at this place in Brooklyn?!’” Ruffin said. “I’m like, yeah, I live here! This is not out of the ordinary for me. I’m just trying to hang out and play some games.”
As esports – also known as competitive gaming – have become more popular, the United States has emerged as a hotbed of talent, with multiple…
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