Leon Brunson, another player, said he loves to compete in DDR, but that’s not what makes the community special to him. “After, DDR Ace, it became apparent that we had been doing this esports thing without any support from Konami,” Roger said, “and with no one noticing that what we were doing was ahead of the game.” Leon Brunson (Right) smiles as he prepares to play Chris4life, a former world champion. He said the work was difficult and unforgiving, but worth it to keep a community he cared about alive. Booking venues, using trucks to transport almost half a ton DDR cabinets from one place to another. He has been running such events for the better part of 15 years and said he has always believed in its potential as an esport.Įven when Konami halted the development of DDR for eight years, community members like Clark helped keep it alive. He described crowds of people taking turns on a machine during tournaments, towels around their neck, gatorades in hand. To Clark, DDR was one of the first esports.
“Your minds and your bodies are synchronized in a way that it gives you a common ground in a way that very few other things can do.” Roger Clark, 15 year DDR veteran and executive producer of Club Fantastic, said. All games share the same focus - staying on beat. The premise of all rhythm games is simple: DDR players use their feet to hit arrows on a plexiglass pad, Guitar hero players hit five different buttons on a plastic guitar and Osu! players use their mouse and keyboard to time clicks on their computer screen. Move to the music Roger Clark remembers when members of the DDR community drove three hours back and forth in order to help him move after they competed in a tournament earlier in the day. More importantly, it established a global community for DDR that still exists to this day. Chris4Life’s win left the western players with “a sense of pride” that they never had before. The players did not compete, but rather went to explore the uncharted territory of Japan, where DDR was created. Along with him was a group of 25 players that also travelled to Japan each time. I just had to do it.”Ĭhris4Life won KAC again in 2017 and took second place in the next two years. “I’ve been either the best, or among the best, at DDR for the past few years, so I knew I was capable of doing it. “I for sure thought I could win it,” said Chris4Life in an interview with RedBull in 2019. What he found was not just the thrill of competition, but a sense of connection to players on the other side of the world. He defeated Yoon “FEFEMZ” Sang Yeon in the final, setting off a rivalry that would last the next three years. The stage was set for a clash that had never been seen before.Ĭhris “Chris4Life” Chike came to Japan as an unknown competitor from a foreign land and left a champion. They never really crossed paths until the 2016 Konami Arcade Championships (KAC), where Konami invited both western and eastern players to compete in an exhibition tournament. Both the east and the west developed their own competitive scenes in isolation. From DDR, to Guitar Hero to Osu!, here's how the rhythm community gets downĭance Dance Revolution (DDR) started out as a rhythm game played in local arcades, from Round 1 in Los Angeles to the SEGA building in Akihabara, Tokyo.