Interview with New Top 100 Melee Player EGtv.FatGoku

Steven "FatGoku" Callopy, a Fox main, is the newly ranked #69 on SSBMRank 2017. He hails from Oregon, is #1 on the Oregon Power Rankings, and plays for EndGameTV. I spoke with FatGoku about his history with competitive Melee and his thoughts on the current meta.

What was your introduction to competitive Melee?

FatGoku: My brother has been playing competitive Melee for like 10 to 12 years, I’m not exactly sure. Sometimes I would go tournaments with him when I was really little, like 9 or 10 years old, so that’s kind of how I was introduced to the scene. I never took it very seriously, I just kind of went with him to tournaments and messed around, and around EVO 2013 was when I was like, “Hey! This game is actually really cool! I should play it.” And now I’m here.

What do you think drew you to Fox as your main?

FatGoku: Back when 64 was the game everyone played, my brother played Fox. He’s my older brother and I look up to him a ton. So he played Fox in 64, and I would just copy everything he did because I looked up to him so much, and so I played Fox in 64. Then when Melee came out and I got a GameCube and stuff, he switched off but I was like, “You know what? I’ll just stick with Fox.” So I never knew he was the best character or anything, I kind of got lucky.

You have a pretty well-established presentation at tournaments with the Goku shirts you wear at every event. What’s the origin of your tag and wearing the Goku shirts to every event and having the image of FatGoku?

FatGoku: One year when I was playing Melee, probably 2013, I got a Goku shirt for Christmas from my mom. I’ve been a huge fan of Dragon Ball Z my entire life, so I was like “Hey, wouldn’t it be kind of neat if I went to every tournament with my Goku shirt? Just to kind of, like, channel Goku.” And so I would do that, and my tag was noobcube back then, which I hated. And eventually Silent Wolf, when he would refer to me, he would just call me FatGoku, you know for obvious reasons. And when I heard that that was what he called me, I thought it was so funny, so then I changed my tag to that.

You’ve been known to be a high caliber player in the past, but it seemed that this year was really your breakout, with your wins on S2J and Syrox. Do you think your play improved dramatically this year, or did you just have the chance to attend more?

FatGoku: I think it’s about 50-50. 2017 was the year I got sponsored by EndGameTV (shoutouts to them, I love you guys). They allowed me to go to, like, seven majors when the year before I went to, like, one or two. So I think going to majors, one, got me more chances to get those upsets like Syrox, Bladewise, S2J, and also going to tournaments and getting more exposure to better players also made me a lot better at the game, so I think it’s a 50-50 split.

How do you think your location has affected your ability to practice? You’re in Oregon, the Portland area, Seattle is a good three hours away, and the best player around your area is Eggz, who used to be top 100 level talent, but the scene in Washington, which is the nearest you have otherwise, is pretty far away, so it’s a little bit of an isolated region.

FatGoku: So I think it’s kind of overblown, living in a bad region. For example, PPMD lived in North Carolina, can you name three players who lived within 1000 miles of PPMD, because I can’t. And Silent Wolf also lived in a region that he was a lot better than. So I try not to john about my region too much. I think that playing with people who are worse than you isn’t always bad, there are a lot of things that I’ve done. Like, I’ve altered my way of learning to learn from playing with lesser players, so I don’t think it’s that bad.

Would I be better if I was born in SoCal? Most likely, but I think you can get really far even if you live in a not super-great region like I do. Netplay also helps a lot. If you’re west coast I can probably play with you on Netplay fairly well, so that also helped a ton, playing with Bladewise, S2J, SFAT a couple times.

So do you use some of these new tools, like Netplay and the 20XX Training Pack, to practice a lot?

FatGoku: I don’t use 20XX too too much, I really should, it’s just because I’m lazy. But I do play quite a bit of Netplay. I honestly don’t even play that much LAN Melee unless I’m either practicing tech skill, at a tournament, or if I’m at a major or something and that’s where I’m playing friendlies. So Netplay has helped me a lot for sure.

What’s your favorite matchup to play?

FatGoku: Ooh, there’s a lot. So I think my top two are Fox dittos and Fox Marth. I think Fox Marth, at least at my level, is like super even, which is super cool, I think it’s Fox’s only even matchup, and maybe Falco. And both characters just destroy each other so hard. And then Fox dittos, I think, are the purest form of Melee. Like, neither person is really limited by that much, and Fox is the only character that I’ve ever played, so I know him really well and I know all of his options. So playing Fox dittos is really fun.

What matchups are you looking to improve in for the future?

FatGoku: I think my worst three matchups are Falco, Sheik, and Samus, and I think a lot of those are just lack of good practice. There used to be a really good Sheik in Oregon but he kind of quit, his tag was Foos, if he ever reads this. There have never been really great Falcos in my region, and there have never really been any great Samuses in my region. I also think for Falco and Samus, it’s two of Fox’s harder matchups, which also attributes to it. So I really do wanna learn those three matchups, I think they’re holding me back quite a bit.

Everyone wants to beat everyone they can obviously, but do you have any particular players you’re looking to a get a shot at in bracket?

FatGoku: I don’t really have a hit list, I just like beating people who are higher than me on MIOM, which I guess is a pretty lame answer. Two in particular though are Bladewise, Bladewise beat me a thousand times in a row, then I beat him at the last tournament we played at, which was, like, six months ago, maybe? Or like five months ago?

Bridgetown Blitz 2, I think it was.

FatGoku: Correct, and then someone I’ll never get a chance at probably ever again is Silent Wolf, because he recently retired. He’s probably the Fox I looked up to the most, and I really wanted to play him at some point when we were both good players, and beat him at some point, but that might not happen, just unfortunate.

You talked about Silent Wolf, is he someone you take inspiration from in your gameplay? Besides him, what players do you think you take inspiration from with how you play Fox?

FatGoku: I’m honestly not too picky about who I’ll steal from. Basically if I steal from someone I’ll be watching a set of theirs either to study or just, “hey I’m watching a tournament and they’re playing,” and if I notice a situation that I would do something different in and they do something way better, I’ll try to take that for next time. Specifically though, Armada, Leffen, I’ll even go back and look at old Silent Wolf videos that are a couple years old, because I still think they have a lot of good stuff. Those three are probably my biggest inspirations.

You’re known for being a very patient player, what do you do maintain your mentality and your patience during tournament sets?

FatGoku: I don’t really view myself as that patient anymore. I used to be known as the super-ultra-lame Fox in Oregon, and I don’t know if I still play super patient, I just try to play optimally, and I think a lot of times that just includes waiting.

Do you still have anything that applies to keeping that mentality together during a tournament set? Like not choking, being able to clutch things out in those tight situations. It seems that a lot of other players who are just beneath or around your skill level are able to take sets very close but then lose in those crucial moments.

FatGoku: Yeah, I had a big issue with that during the first half of last year. I lost, like, eight sets in a row to people who were ranked higher than me that all went to game five, which is kind of insane. And eventually, I don’t know, I just didn’t get too hard on myself for it, and once I got into that situation more times, like once I was in ten game fives, and I lost a ton of them, I just stopped feeling nervous about it, or at least less nervous, everyone’s nervous in game fives, I don’t care what anyone says. So yeah, just getting used to it, I guess.

Anything else you want to add?

FatGoku: Shoutouts to Oregon Melee, you guys are all beautiful, amazing people. And EndGameTV, for allowing me to live my life in a way that makes me happy, and a special shoutout to Connor Kelly, who is both Oregon and EGTV, which is a great combination.

You can follow FatGoku on his Twitter, @FatGoku64 and his Twitch, twitch.tv/fatgoku.