The fighting game community has led the pack for memes and vernacular in esports for a long time. It seems natural to me for this to be so - the FGC had the first real English streams with commentators that were extremely colorful and embraced the idea of the hype man. On top of that, the FGC is much more of a communal group coming from the arcade scene as compared to the home PC scene.

I think you are not giving the FGC the credit it deserves for its role in the growing popularity of "esports" and its role in shaping the character of the "esports" fan.