A Look at the Craziest Competitive Gamers You’ve Ever Seen

San Francisco has its share of landmark : The Golden Gate Bridge , Lombard Street , wherever Rice - A - Roni came from . But for blanched - knuckle competitive gamers , the metropolis has just one true name and address : Southtown Arcade — a tiny storefront by the Stockton Tunnel that houses Frisco ’s last outpost for hardcore gamers . So when game - loving photographerRyan Russelllanded out west as part of Gizmodo’sIntel - Inspired Ultrabook ™ Shooting Challenge , he knew exactly where to head .

The occasion of Ryan ’s visit : One of Southtown ’s fabled ranbats , which is short for “ ranking battle , ” and is basically a tournament . As he shot Marvel vs. Capcom 3 gamers defend it out via pixelated pugilists , the store ’s small size kept him and his fellow onlookers shoulder - to - shoulder , their cheers erupting literally inches from the competitors ’ ear . No link variation would ever take into account spectators to get this close to the activeness . At Southtown , the players ( who bring their own pimped - out joystick ) feed off the onlookers ’ muscularity .

Ryan have sex that few folks have the patience to wait for exposure . Not only did his ultra - sleekIntel - Inspired Ultrabook ™ ‘s flyspeck sizing mean that he could bring it into the cramped colonnade without squeezing a massive bag into a take crowd , but it also made it well-off for him to lash it out at a moment ’s card to land up off his shots and get them where they needed to go ( bonus : its radical - responsive innards intend he did n’t have to stare at an hourglass while waiting for quickie touchups to impact down ) . And because the computer had a longer - lasting battery life than the laptops he had used in the past times , he could contract more piece of work out of the day before tamp it in for the night .