Critical Reaction's Dominique "SonicFox" McLean knows what people are saying about him. He's been hearing it ever since he emerged in explosive fashion in Injustice: Gods Among Us and established himself as the de facto No. 1 player in all games by NetherRealm Studios. He's the favorite in every Mortal Kombat tournament, an ambassador for fighting games, one of the top earners in prize money from fighting game tournaments, and, most importantly, a winner.
After his Community Effort Orlando (CEO) 2016 victory, he's the clear favorite to defend his title at the Evolution Fighting Game Championships (Evo). The 18-year-old already boasts three ESL Mortal Kombat X Pro League championships and two Evo tournament victories (Injustice in 2014 and Mortal Kombat X in 2015), and will only continue to add more hardware to his ever-expanding trophy room.
Despite all the success, SonicFox remains humble. He understands that the next player to dethrone him could be an unknown gem waiting to be discovered. SonicFox cites Mark Twain's advice for his ability to stay sharp during tournaments instead of resting on his laurels:
"The best swordsman in the world doesn't need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn't do the thing he ought to do, and so the expert isn't prepared for him; he does the thing he ought not to do; and often it catches the expert out and ends him on the spot."
"I'm very confident in winning Evo. There's no one opponent I can't beat; I'll beat everyone if I need to," SonicFox said. "The competition is getting stronger. You never know how good a player is until they come out. It's very scary because I did lose a lot of matches at ESL to people I've never seen before."
One of those formerly unknown players, Panda Global's Brad "Scar" Vaughn, is arguably one of the biggest threats to SonicFox's continued tournament success. He was the runner-up at CEO 2016 after an amazing set and gave SonicFox fits during his latest ESL championship run.
After Scar took the advantage during their set, SonicFox returned to his old familiar character, Erron Black, and ran it all the way back. He admitted that Scar was one of the scariest opponents he'd ever encountered; in the run up to CEO, he even said that he was afraid to face Scar. However, this ever-versatile kombatant with a ridiculous list of pocket characters remains the star in Mortal Kombat. SonicFox's latest obsession, the character Alien, may be his trump card and the key to becoming a two-time Mortal Kombat X champion at Evo.
"Alien has everything a character has plus more," SonicFox said. "He has amazing reach, very good 50/50s that can be kept safe, armor attacks that are 50/50s on wakeup, pressure and great anti-airs -- generally everything a character wishes they had."
Although SonicFox has also competed and placed highly in Street Fighter V, his goal and current game is still 100 percent Mortal Kombat X. MKX has the most money on the line.
"I play other games, and I do enjoy playing other games, but right now there's so much for Mortal Kombat X and I'm considered the top in the game. I got to get that money," SonicFox said. "I plan on playing Injustice 2. I got to try it at E3 and it's an amazing game. I was the best in Injustice with Batgirl and I plan on doing the same in the sequel with another character."
SonicFox will need to prepare for both experts and unknown gems in order to stay on top and win a third Evo trophy. If he can maintain his dominance, he will prove to the fighting game community and the worldwide audience that they'll need to get used to him, because he's not going anywhere.