I grew up in Milwaukee with a passion for games starting with Super Mario World on the Super Nintendo when I was 2 years old! As I grew up I always followed the latest games: Smash Bros., Halo, Call of Duty, Street Fighter, League of Legends, Dota 2. My best memories were playing in epic Halo 2 LAN parties or feeling the chilling tension of a Street Fighter tournament. I want to create an environment where people can come and make those memories themselves.
I was born and raised by my industrious Chinese immigrant parents. They opened a restaurant from scratch with broken English and a lot of hard work. I started helping out at the restaurant when I was 12 years old and gradually learned the aspects of owning and managing a restaurant over the next 10 years. However, my parents did not want me to inherit all the stress and long hours that comes with owning a restaurant and always pushed me to get a college education and a comfy job in some office. After college, I worked in at New York Life Insurance as a personal finance and investments job for a year. While it made decent money and did not require grueling hours I didn’t feel like I could make it my build my life from it. After much thought I wanted to create a business that incorporated what I loved, video games with the same pioneer spirit that my parents had before me. By chance I met Patton, my business partner, who used to own a gaming center back in Vietnam and together we created Tier 1 Gaming Lounge.