Justin Wong and Phil Visu commentating for the NBA 2K League in July 2019 at the NBA 2K Studio in Long Island City, New York.Join BI PrimeJustin Wong was one of the first stars of the professional gaming world, commanding attention with a string of world championships in games like "Street Fighter" and "Marvel vs Capcom."
The 34-year-old has dominated fighting game tournaments around the world for the past two decades and earned a pair of Guinness World Records for his multiple world championships in "Street Fighter" and "Marvel vs Capcom." After he signed with Team Evil Geniuses in 2010, he became America's first sponsored fighting game player, earning a salary to represent the team during competitions and media events. Though Wong didn't mind representing the team as trade shows or special events, he said he didn't like relying on the team to negotiate sponsorships on his behalf.
"Teams have hit me up ... I'm just saying no," Wong said."I'd rather focus on what I've been doing, and it's been pretty successful. I just enjoy making cool things happen with these other companies by myself. You really avoid all the politics and all this stuff of like team managers. The teams I would say, are very middle-manish."
"I want to be known for more variety," Wong said. "Like okay we know Justin plays all these fighting games — he's also loves anime, so he talks about anime all time, and he's a mobile game fanatic."