"Coosco" mashes his way to the top of Dallas's Fighting game community

 In a large ballroom in Houston Texas, two men sit across from each other on a large stage. There is a large monitor between them and a crowd of jeering people behind them, they both are playing the game Street Fighter 6 on the largest stage Texas has to offer. The game comes down to the very last round but a Dallas native under the the gamer name of Coosco clutches out a close set to move on in the tournament. 

They are both at a tournament called Texas Showdown, held in Houston, Texas every year. This is the biggest tournament in Texas and it means a lot to Coosco who has been working to win it all. He has been a pillar of the fighting game community and looks to become more than that during each tournament he travels to.

From the beginning

Micheal “Coosco” Henderson is a Player and community figure for the fighting game community from Dallas, Texas. He originally started playing fighting games as a kid but was inspired when he watched the largest Fighting game in the world one year. He and his friends were inspired by the great competition and became competitors.

“I never knew there was a competitive scene, so when Street Fighter 4 came out I would play with friends and would get all of the achievements,” Henderson told me. “I ended up selling the game originally when I got all of the achievements. July hit, and I ended up watching EVO which is the biggest fighting game tournament every year held in Las Vegas, and there were so many people who were into fighting games and playing competitively I did not realize. So after EVO that year I called up my friends, who also watched and we all thought that it was so cool that we decided to get into competitive fighting games.” 

In 2012 Coosco became a competitive fighting game player and would travel across the United States to compete. While they were not nationally known to people or competitors outside of Mortal Kombat, his eventual main game, people in the Dallas and Fort Worth area came to respect him due to his involvement in the grassroots tournament scene. 

Getting Housed

Coosco while being a noteworthy competitor is also known for another thing: Mash House. A collective of people playing at a house or apartment since 2015. While not originally his idea, his friend Korey Wilburn has hosted it since 2015 at his house and then at his apartment. In 2019, Coosco moved in with Corey, and the official Mash House that has continued to this day was born. 

“I have known Korey since 2015 and he basically pitched to us while we were at an event for the Esports Stadium a weekly tournament,” Coosco told me. “he is like hey like I'm thinking about having a bunch of people over at my house so we can like get some matches in for Mortal Kombat on Saturday. I'm like, Dude, it would be sick. And so he had a house out in like The Carrollton and he put a sign on his door like a little like print out paper mash house. He taped it to the door and the rest is history. “

The tournament is one of the more well-known local fighting game gatherings and emphasizes the fighting game community's grassroots nature. Most tournaments in the fighting game community in Dallas are during the day at games shops and PC cafes, making Mash Houses stand out for being neither. The tournament occurs later at night and is at the aptly named “Mash House” in Carrolton. 

“It's a really fun time. And people have been like it's really special because people do come over they love it. And we're honestly just satisfied but really thrilled that people come over and they look forward to coming like every Saturday.” 

The tournament series continues to this day and features different games and people there every week on Saturday. 

Community inspiration 

While you will see Coosco at the weekly Mash House tournament and traveling to national fighting game tournaments, more recently he has become a staple of the scene at other local tournaments. When he first entered the Street Fighter scene post Street Fighter 6’s release he won Dallas’s first major tournament “Attack on Texas” and won many tournaments outside of Mash House. 

Coosco playing in Grand Finals of Attack on Texas in August 2023- Photo taken from Tourney Locator’s YouTube

“His play is really fundamentally sound.” Marqus “Itried” Alfred Told me, speaking about how Coosco was inside of the game. Alfred has Known Coosco for a few years through Mash House and now commentates and plays Street Fighter in the same tournaments as Coosco. 

“Nothing he does is super flashy, and it is based more on proper spacing, movement, and decision-making. All things that are easy to grasp and regular people can improve on. For me personally, he’s a good measuring stick. Playing him helps me understand where I'm still deficient from a defensive perspective as well as forces me to stay on my toes decision-wise”

Coosco while a well-known player in Dallas, is also known to give advice if asked and participate in even the smallest tournaments if able to. 

Coosco first went to his first national tournament in 2015 when he went to Texas Showdown 2015. He played for himself during the tournament but started realizing it was more than that during the tournament. 

“It was awesome and it was a great feeling, I was so proud of myself and I was mainly playing honestly for myself.” Coosco Said “As I played more Mortal Kombat and other fighting games and got good placements more and more people were saying that they would watch my matches. Whether they love watching my Sonya or whichever fighting a character I was playing if I would lose people would be sad right or comfort me. It was different.”

He continues to inspire many Fighting game players in the local community. He now represents more than just himself even rocking the Mash House sponsor and jersey when he goes to tournaments. 

On the big screen

While Coosco is known for traveling and representing Dallas at many places, he has also become well-known for his content creation and entertaining streams. He originally started streaming in 2017 on Twitch.tv, a popular video game streaming site. he has gained a following of local and national viewers who come to watch the amazing Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter 6 gameplay that he has to offer.

“I want to be productive,” Coosco said. “And when I play fighting games it's like past fun for me at this point, I want to feel like I am getting something done in the game. If I am trying to get better for a tournament that's productive but I can’t do that all of the time. So I asked myself what if I tried streaming, that could be fun and productive. so I saved up money. I got a desktop, a really nice desktop to be able to stream and have some fun. And so once I got my desktop, I started doing Mortal Kombat X and I was streaming consistently and I would get some people tuning in and I would do that and it would be fun.”

Coosco eventually also got into doing YouTube content more recently and has been featured on an internet gameshow by a popular Content Creator and Fighting game ambassador Justin Wong.  The Gameshow titled “NXT Up” Features Coosco and 7 other contestants who are playing various online minigames inside Street Fighter 6 to win 10,00$ and 3 trips to major tournaments this year. Coosco had to make a short YouTube clip to show why he should be on “NXT Up” and ended up being chosen from thousands of entrants by the show's creator Justin Wong. 

“I love Coosco,”  Wong said in his first video announcing the contestants “I love his energy I love like the way he talks the way he thinks about fighting games the way he wants to just keep on getting better the passion he has when beating people and even helping

people it's an easy pick.”

Coosco continues to stream while he is featured every week on the show with episode 2 being the latest episode to come out on Justin Wong’s Youtube channel.