SonicFox | |
---|---|
Personal information | |
Name | Dominique McLean |
Born | [1] | March 2, 1998
Nationality | American |
Career information | |
Playing career | 2012–present |
Team history | |
2014–2015 | Revolution Gaming |
2015–2016 | Critical Reaction |
2017–2019 | Echo Fox |
2020–2023 | Evil Geniuses |
Dominique McLean (born March 2, 1998), known professionally as SonicFox, is an American professional esports player of several fighting games. They [lower-alpha 1] have topped many tournaments, including seven Evolution Championship Series (EVO) events for five different game franchises. They are the highest paid fighting game esports player in the world as of August 4, 2019, with over $719,204.94 in earnings. [3] McLean was named Esports Player of the Year at The Game Awards 2018 and included in Forbes 's 2020 "30 Under 30" for Games.
McLean is openly gay, [4] non-binary, [5] and a furry. They are known to participate in fighting game tournaments in the fursuit of their fursona, a blue-and-white anthropomorphic fox. [6]
McLean's older brother, Christian, got McLean interested in fighting video games when McLean was three years old. [7] Over the next several years, while McLean continued to play games, they came into the furry fandom around the age of ten or eleven, and developed the "SonicFox" character. [6]
Around 2011, McLean was playing in non-competitive online Mortal Kombat games, and their online friends encouraged them to try their skills at an offline Mortal Kombat tournament in 2012. [8] While McLean only came in ninth at the event, they were enthralled with the competitive atmosphere, and they have continued to participate in various fighting game championships. [6]
McLean achieved a 6–0 victory at the Injustice: Gods Among Us tournament at Evo 2014. [9] News.com.au reported in December 2015 that McLean had not lost a single tournament in the previous 18 months, and that they earned $150,000 USD within the span of two weeks by winning Mortal Kombat tournaments. [10]
McLean was named the "Esports Player of the Year" at The Game Awards 2018 ceremony, earning media attention for their acceptance speech. [11] Forbes included McLean on their 2020 "30 Under 30" in the Games category. [12]
On March 18, 2020, SonicFox signed with the fighting games division of the esports team Evil Geniuses. [13]
In 2020, SonicFox was added as a background character in Skullgirls . [14]
On October 12, 2023, SonicFox announced via their Twitter that they were no longer signed with Evil Geniuses and are actively looking for a team. [15]
McLean was raised in Townsend, Delaware. [16] As of 2018, McLean was a student at the New York Institute of Technology. [6] McLean chose to focus on academics while still maintaining a balance between their professional gaming and school life. [17] In September 2019, McLean came out on Twitter as non-binary. [5] [18] [19] McLean publicly uses singular they pronouns, reserving use of masculine pronouns only for those to whom they are close, in order to help normalize the use of singular they. [20] [2]
Ermac is a character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. Debuting as an unlockable character in Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 (1995), he is an amalgam of the souls of deceased warriors and possesses telekinetic abilities.
Sonya Blade is a fictional character in the Mortal Kombat fighting game franchise by Midway Games and NetherRealm Studios. She debuted in the original 1992 game as the roster's sole female fighter, a military officer with the Special Forces. In the storyline of the games, Sonya becomes involved with the eponymous Mortal Kombat tournament through pursuit of her archenemy, the criminal leader Kano. She subsequently joins the warriors defending Earthrealm and establishes a government agency dedicated to battling otherworldly threats. The series' rebooted timeline also depicts her as the love interest to martial arts actor Johnny Cage and the mother of their daughter Cassie. A mainstay of the franchise, Sonya has also appeared in various media outside of the games. Reception to the character has been generally positive, with respect to her role as one of Mortal Kombat's primary female fighters. Though, some of her outfits in the games have received criticism.
Edward "Ed" Boon is an American video game programmer, voice actor, and director. Boon was employed for over 15 years at Midway Games. Since 2011, he has worked for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment for one of its Subsidiaries, NetherRealm Studios.
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Mortal Kombat is a 2011 fighting game developed by NetherRealm Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is the ninth main installment in the Mortal Kombat series and a soft reboot of the series. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 systems in April 2011, and a PlayStation Vita port was released in May 2012. An expanded version of the game, titled Mortal Kombat: Komplete Edition, was released for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in February 2012 and for Microsoft Windows in July 2013.
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