Quad Gods Of Gaming


Richard Jacobs smiles in the background as Alejandro Courtney games with an adaptive controller.
Richard Jacobs smiles in the background as Alejandro Courtney games with an adaptive controller. Photo by Jess Jacklin.

When asked if he is prepared for the top levels of competition, Jose Hernandez, a C5 quad and one of the Quad Gods captains, exudes confidence. “What I can say is that I may not be able to beat you down the street, but when I play games I can match or defeat you,” he says.

Hernandez’s team is attracting big-name sponsors like Logitech, which kitted them out with high-end PCs and an array of adaptive gear. And although the players participate because it’s fun, they say gaming with others who live with SCI/D makes the experience more special. “You have that camaraderie,” says Hernandez, 40. “You know that your teammates understand what you’re going through.”

The problem-solving and competitive scenarios players master in order to win matches or in-game achievements often have real-life applications, so it’s logical that the sport found a home in a rehab setting like Mount Sinai. “Those skills and experiences even transfer into work and day-to-day life,” says Hernandez. “If I can beat something in the game, then I can do quality work on par with other professionals.”

Hernandez started playing video games when he was a teenager. After his diving accident at age 15, he continued playing as form of hand therapy as well as recreation. He adapted to growingly-complex controls by building his own PC setup that allowed him to keep up with other gamers.

When he heard about the quad gaming team in Mount Sinai Hospital’s transition group, he was all in. “I got involved because of Angela,” he says about Angela Riccobono, the senior clinical psychologist at Mount Sinai and the group’s facilitator. “In one way or another, the whole team has worked with her.”

The first Quad God was Chris Scott, who acquired a C3 spinal cord injury from a parachute accident in Long Island six years ago. “Scott, who passed away, is the reason the team got created,” says Hernandez. “He rehabbed at Mount Sinai and was extremely depressed, and Angela didn’t know how to help him.”

In the Beginning

The mouth-operated QuadStick hit the market the same year Scott was injured. With the sip-and-puff device mounted on his wheelchair, he could play games ranging from first-person shooters to racing titles, and fell on a few favorites, including the ever-changing NBA basketball series.

Although gaming was a fun escape, Scott became lonelier and spent most of his time at home. He had hit a rut. “He missed participating in activities like skydiving,” says Riccobono. In February 2019, she introduced Scott to a coworker of hers, David Putrino. He’s the director of rehabilitation innovation for Mount Sinai Health System and has a lab dedicated to new rehabilitation technologies, including video games.

When the two men realized they were both gamers, Scott had Putrino grab a well-used QuadStick out of his backpack. Putrino mounted the device on Scott’s arm rest, plugged it into an Xbox, and it was game on. Basketball was Scott’s specialty and Putrino had played his fair share over the years, so that was the first contest. “He started to play NBA2K,” says Putrino. “And then he started to kick my ass.”

When he and Riccobono realized that gaming was successful for Scott, they collaborated with him to start an esports team. The trio fundraised to purchase adaptive gaming equipment and found other quads to game with them, with Scott as the team captain.

Once the project was ready to be announced, Riccobono invited members of her biweekly transition group to join. Within two months, “about 12 other quads showed up and wanted to be a part of it,” says Putrino. Eight of those stuck with it to form a competitive team. By July 19, 2019, the players officially launched as the “Quad Gods,” and in October, the popular website CNET wrote about the team in a prominent feature.

Sadly, Scott had passed away from a chest infection on July 27, barely one week after the Quad Gods officially launched. Though it was hard to work through their grief, the team continued with Scott’s memory and goals.

Building a Team

The Quad Gods esports team plays out of Mount Sinai and hopes to one day make it to the Olympics.
The Quad Gods esports team plays out of Mount Sinai and hopes to one day make it to the Olympics.

Competitive gaming — sometimes one-on-one, sometimes teams-against-teams — started moving online in the 1990s and became more well-known with the establishment of the Cyberathlete Professional League in 1997. By the 2010s, large, in-person tournaments handed out millions of dollars in prizes, with famous players landing top-dollar sponsorships. With the possibility of esports becoming an Olympic sport someday, the Quad Gods didn’t just want to play together.  They wanted to compete on the world stage.

The Quad Gods’ remaining seven members met at Mount Sinai at least once per week for practice and team-building until the COVID-19 crisis hit New York City. Then they switched to playing and practicing from home. They secured sponsorships and resources from developers and donors. In addition to Logitech’s donations, the New Jersey Nets basketball team donated a physical gaming space, and a foundation affiliated with billionaire Mark Cuban provided $60,000 in funding for technology, development and travel.

These donations opened even more possibilities for the team and each of its members. Thanks to the high-end gaming computers that include eye-trackers, Nyree Stevens, 29, a C3-4 quad, can play games on PC. Like the others, she also played video games before her injury, although she wasn’t obsessed with them.

Stevens uses a QuadStick. “I was playing a shooting game where you have to aim, and it was pretty hard at the beginning,” she says. “But after a couple times, I was able to aim well, which is pretty amazing.” Soon she entered the fray of racing games, holding her own against both friends and foes.

She says she’s in the minority on a couple fronts. “There are only two of us that play with the QuadStick,” she says. “And it’s pretty crazy I’m one of only two girls on the team.” She hopes that more women and high-level quads will join in the future.

Ready to Compete

While playing in the Olympics is their ultimate goal, the Quad Gods train to compete in both disabled and nondisabled tournaments. Although they play competitively online, their goal is to beat nondisabled teams at in-person events.

Sometimes when competing against random teams online, the Quad Gods will be upfront about their paralysis, especially when opponents ask about the team name. Other times, they’ll keep their disabilities hidden, go on to win a competition, and get a well-earned boost from the fact that their opponent had no idea they lost to a team of quadriplegics.

“It’s incredible that in 2020 individuals with disabilities can play competitive video games with other players and they take us seriously,” says Hernandez.
Richard Jacobs, a C7-T1 quad for nearly five years, agrees. “We’re just another gamer to them. Even though we have certain restrictions that hinder what we do physically, we show everybody else we are on the same level as them.”

Like many of his teammates, Jacobs, 37, grew up playing video games. He didn’t explore his gaming options right away after rehab because, “it’s mainly in my hands where I have a loss of dexterity and fine motor skills,” and a conventional joystick didn’t cut it. Then Riccobono mentioned the Gods as something that could boost his spirits.

He showed up to see the team in action and sat next to Blake Hunt, a C5-6 quad using an adaptive joystick. “I saw him playing the game. If you didn’t see him and just saw the TV, you never would have guessed he was a quad,” he says. “I thought, he’s doing it, why can’t I?” He signed up for the Quad Gods right away.

From Screen to Real Life

Team members find that playing has real-world benefits. Hernandez drives his own van using the adaptive Scott Driving System. Now that racing games are a part of his repertoire, he says, “Video gaming made me better at driving,” because the regular hand-eye coordination made those movements feel more natural.
Stevens, a QuadStick gamer, now paints by holding a brush in between her teeth. “It’s better than when I painted with my hands,” she says.

And Jacobs finds the small movements he uses to manipulate a controller have improved his function. “My hands got better, just enough to grip a cup,” he says. The cup is still heavy, but he can lift it with one hand now.

Mental health and socializing are arguably the biggest benefits to gaming. “You get to immerse yourself in the game and be in a totally different world,” says Jacobs. He finds video games to be a great bonding experience with his daughter, who now has the entire Mario collection alongside other adventure titles.

Ultimately, gaming is another great hobby for quads who have fewer options than their nondisabled peers. Stevens put it best when she says every piece of gaming, from hand-eye coordination to socializing, has its own value, “and it’s the little things that make people happy.”

Cool Custom Controllers

Spencer Allen

For gamers with limited to no hand function, a customized controller can be the difference between having fun and running into a virtual wall. Jose Hernandez used a soldering iron to build his own controller for his PC about 10 years ago. “I wanted to be able to use more than the six buttons that came on the standard, arcade-style joysticks,” he says. The controller he built gave him 15 configurable buttons. Back then, homemade solutions like Hernandez’s kept adapted gamers on the cutting edge, but the advent of the Microsoft Xbox Adaptive Controller in 2018 upped the bar for creativity and adaptation.

Fellow gamer Spencer Allen is one of the many innovators using the Xbox Adaptive Controller as a base for next-level controllers. Unlike Hernandez, who games solely on PC, Allen, a C5 quad with a background in engineering, wanted a controller he could use for gaming on consoles. He prototyped a semicircular lap tray that sits on his power chair with one joystick on each armrest and an array of buttons he hits with his hands and elbows. All the buttons and joysticks plug in neatly to the Xbox Adaptive Controller, making configuring the controller for different games a snap. Multiple iterations later, Allen finalized a sleek design with a plexiglass top. Microsoft recognized his ingenuity by featuring him in a promotional video touting the controller.

Spencer Allen (above) engineered this setup that features one joystick on each armrest and an array of buttons he can hit with his hands and elbows.
Spencer Allen (above) engineered this setup that features one joystick on each armrest and an array of buttons he can hit with his hands and elbows.

Allen hopes to show other people with disabilities that they, too, can play video games. He recently launched Infinity Gaming Shop to manufacture and sell custom controllers. “I don’t want anyone to feel like video games have been taken away from them because of an injury or disability,” says Allen. “Hopefully my solution can help others enjoy games the way I do.”

For more on Allen’s story, or to purchase one of his controllers, check out infinitygamingshop.com.

Rocky Stoutenburgh is the first quad to sign a professional gaming contract.
Rocky Stoutenburgh is the first quad to sign a professional gaming contract.

No Hands, No Problem for Esports Star

Rocky Stoutenburgh got his first QuadStick video game controller in 2008, two years after sustaining a C3-4 spinal cord injury. He remembers being excited to get back to playing video games but unsure how big an impact the device would have. “I thought it would be something fun to do,” says Stoutenburgh, who lives in Southgate, Michigan. “I thought it would be one of those things you try. You know, the kind of things people give you and say, ‘You should try this!’ or ‘This would be cool to use for your life,’ and then they just collect dust in your closet and you never use it again.”

Twelve years later, Stoutenburgh’s mastery of the QuadStick and competitive video games has led him to two Guinness World Records and a professional contract with one of the world’s most prominent esports organizations. “I got addicted to using [the QuadStick],” he says with a laugh. “Now I’m just over-packed with too many people to play with and not enough time in the day.”


His schedule is likely to get even busier thanks to the contract he signed with Luminosity Gaming this summer. Since its inception in 2015, Luminosity has grown into one of the most recognizable organizations in esports, fielding teams in all the most visible games and sponsoring some of esports’ most high-profile personalities.


Stoutenburgh’s skill with the sip-and-puff-based controller has earned him a legion of fans and the nickname “Rocky No Hands.” He has over 68,000 followers who regularly tune in to watch him play live on Twitch, and almost 55,000 subscribers who enjoy highlights of his exploits on his YouTube channel. He also posts regularly on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.


Until recently, Stoutenburgh created, edited and posted almost all of that content on his own, working on his iPad from bed into the wee hours of the night. Signing with Luminosity means he will have access to a team of talented content producers who can help him grow his brand and improve his videos.


“The most exciting part to me is all the help and advice I’m getting from them,” he says.


Additionally, he’ll have the chance to play with celebrities like NFL stars Richard Sherman and Darius Slay, and take part in high-profile tournaments and competitions.


For now, Stoutenburgh is honing his craft at Call of Duty: Warzone, the leading battle royale game in the esports world right now. He already has two Guinness records in Fortnite, and would like to add to that total by setting more in Warzone. He’s excited about the year to come.


“I’m hoping that I grow a little bit more,” he says. “Hopefully I’ll re-sign next year and keep growing bigger.”


Follow Stoutenburgh at Rocky-NoHands on YouTube, Instagram, Twitch and Twitter.


— Ian Ruder


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