America’s greatest rhythm gamer is now Dance Dance Revolution’s world champion

North American competitors were invited to compete in Dance Dance Revolution's world championships this weekend for the first time, and what do you know: A Yank showed up and won the whole damn thing.

You couldn’t have picked a better first-timer from this hemisphere than Chris Chike, aka iamchris4life, seeded first in the DDR competition at the Sixth Konami Arcade Championships. Profiled by The New York Times almost a decade ago, at the height of the Guitar Hero craze, he was the first to 100 percent "Through the Fire and the Flames" on Guitar Hero 3: Legends of Rock. He also was the first to earn 100 percent on a level 17 Dance Dance Revolution song.

Among three competitions in the grand final at the KAC, Chike finished first in two and was narrowly edged in the third to go home as the Dance Dance Revolution champion of the world.

You can watch here (it picks up at the 5 hour, 30 minute mark of the video, for the final match). Chike rolled up a huge 300+ combo through middle of his last competition to see his way through to ultimate victory.

The Konami Arcade Championships have been held in Japan annually since 2011, crowning winners in about a dozen or so Konami arcade video games over that span. A win here means the world championship for the game in question.

DDR loomed over this competition because of North Americans' inclusion for the first time. Chike was hardly alone from this hemisphere — joining Jeff “fungah” Lloyd and Hudson “KAZE.573” Felker.