It’s a tough thing, winning in Chicago. The Cubs haven’t won since 1908. The White Sox haven’t won since 1918. The Black Hawks haven’t won since 1961 and have been declared the worst of all professional North American sports franchises by ESPN, and the Bears have been mediocre at best wince their mid-eighties glory days. That’s what makes Jeremy Tucker so noteworthy.

In a town with the losingest of traditions, it was Tucker, the Lansing, Michigan bartender/chef who emerged victorious in the last major tournament before the PC’s beginning this weekend. Playing Big Brotherhood, Jeremy worked the field, taking home first prize and a whole lot of hope coming into Indianapolis. As full as his life is, though, it’s amazing that he found his way to Chicago at all.

Tucker, 23, divides 95 percent of his time between three pursuits: school, where he’s studying criminal law; his two-year old daughter, Celes; and Vs. System. “I was always a big comic book reader, so getting into the game was kind of a natural.” I asked if the money provided him the incentive to learn, to which he responded with a smile “Well sure, it was a nice bonus.”

With his time already so heavily invested, Jeremy does most of his preparation through reading on the Internet, crediting VsRealms.com and VsUniverse.com as his primary sources for strategy material. He maintains that putting this kind of thought into the game is crucial, insisting that as much as 70 percent of success in Vs. System can be attributed to preparation and knowledge of the metagame. “I think if you had two evenly prepared players and one was the most talented player in the world, he’d still only win about 60 percent of the games, but the more prepared player will win almost every time.” This has been the dominant opinion amongst those who’ve found their first professional gaming experiences in Vs. System.

As for the future, Jeremy confesses he doesn’t know that he’ll be able to keep up as the game’s pro players start spending more and more time on tournaments: Celes and school are just too important. Should his negative prognostications prove correct, though, he can take solace in this: in Chicago terms, his success will be a recent memory.