The competitive Rivals community has pushed the game further than we’ve ever imagined. Numerous players have taken each of our characters to do incredible things in the name of victory. However, since the earliest days of the Rivals Championship Series, one name has stood above the rest: FullStream.
Not only is FullStream the most dominant player in the game to date, he’s won stacked events with multiple characters. As we approach his next tournament, Shine 2018, he took some time to speak with us about his career thus far, his acquisition by preeminent fighting game organization Panda Global, and his goals for the future.
Can you tell us a bit about your competitive gaming experience before Rivals?
Rivals has been my first competitive gaming experience in every aspect! It fit in well with my love of spectating the competitive Smash Bros scenes, though.
How did you discover Rivals, and what made you want to compete at the highest level in the game?
My brother introduced me to the game after he found out about it from a video by Gbay99. I had no plans to compete at the highest level until I found out there were online tournaments and I entered the first time. At first I was just playing because it was a fun new game, but once I realized that it clicked for me on another level, I started to commit to it in another way.
What does it mean to you to be the game’s first RCS champion?
At the time it was very important to me. I dedicated a lot of time to the game and improving, and one of the most satisfying feelings is knowing that you put your all into something only to see it pay off. Looking back now I think it really paved the way for how I would approach the game and my plans for the future immensely.
Can you share a bit about the process of getting signed by Panda Global? How has your experience playing on such a well-regarded team been thus far?
Ah man, that was a crazy time. I had just become a free agent after the transition from Fly Society (who gave me an amazing initial experience into the esports industry) to Edax, and that gave me a lot of time to think about where I was and where I wanted to go. Once I was a free agent I had several teams contact and negotiate with me, but the only one I ever reached out to was Panda Global.
As one of my favorite teams, in terms of personalities, talent, and care for their players, I knew that I would love being part of that family and very seriously would be a dream team. I got help from my uncle in terms of drafting up an email to contact them, Dan was very open about me being a free agent at the time and basically helped as a “recommendation” in that regards, George (Etalus) and Dan also helped me gather some Rivals statistics to share with them, and there were people already on PG that vouched for me as well.
It was all really eye-opening and incredible to see people help me achieve a high-reaching goal. Pretty soon after I contacted them I got on the phone with Alan [CEO of Panda Global], and the next thing I knew I was a Panda. The process didn’t take long once I contacted them, but I was so anxious that it seemed like it took months. That was a lot of explanation about the process, so I’ll keep it short and say that I couldn’t be happier being a Panda. They’ve supported me in every way possible and everyone cares about everyone here—it still feels so surreal.
At the start of your competitive career you were regarded as the premier Wrastor player, and we saw you focus on Ori following her release, but more recently you’ve chosen to play characters themed after events (Etalus at Frostbite, Ranno at Smash’N’Splash). What lead to this somewhat more casual approach to character selection?
There were so many factors that contributed to switching off Wrastor. Although he was still fun to play, I realized that I was having more fun with some other characters, and that combined with my want to show people that I could be the best without Wrastor highly contributed to that decision. If anything, the challenge itself added to how much fun it sounded!
Another reason was that I wanted to show people that any character could perform well and win big tournaments. Winning with Zetterburn, Etalus, Ori, getting 2nd with Ranno, and still being ranked 1st for season 2 makes me really satisfied with how it has gone in the year after dropping Wrastor. On top of that I wanted to grow as an overall player, not just as a Wrastor player. I believed that the best way I could improve my fundamentals and mentality as a player was to put myself in major tournaments and just remove Wrastor entirely from my options.
Like you said, this made my approach to character selection more casual since I wasn’t sticking with the character that I thought would give me the best chance to win, but in my head I was just doing whatever I had the most fun with and what I thought would have the most effect in the long run.
You’ve been fairly public in stating that you’ve taken a bit of a break from Rivals this Summer. What are your expectations going into your “comeback” event at Shine?
Yeah, since I’ve been in Boston all summer for this internship (which has been going great!) I haven’t had any strong desire to play games, honestly, so I haven’t touched Rivals at all. I’ve been really focused on doing my best here and I’ve only had WiFi to my disposal so even if I wanted to practice it would feel lackluster anyway. I don’t really have any expectations going into Shine. As of now I don’t even know who I’m going to play as!
Having achieved the title of “best in the game” and multiple high profile tournament wins, what are your goals as a Rivals of Aether competitor going forward?
In terms of my Rivals career the “goal” of winning/placing well with many characters is still there. I’m definitely not trying to prove myself to others anymore since I feel that was exceeded a while ago. My highest priority is improving and having fun with that challenge, and the success I’ve had makes me want to see how far I can go in other platform fighters as well!
A huge thank you to FullStream for sharing his time with us. Give him a follow on Twitter and catch him in action at Shine 2018, August 25th on twitch.tv/BigBlueGG starting at 6PM ET / 5PM CT / 3PM PT.