If you are following the SoulCalibur scene, there is a very good chance you know Heaton already. His Siegfried is hard to miss whenever he shows. And now, now he shows on Portal’s Introduction Series!

Twitter: Heaton 히튼 ヒートン
Twitch: YourPalHeaton
Birth Year: 1992
Country: USA | Republic of Korea | Singapore

If you had to introduce yourself in three sentences to some SoulCalibur player who didn’t know you, what would you say?

Just an old-school Siegfried player. Was brought up in Seattle, living now in Korea.

What is the origin or meaning of your nickname?

When I was a freshman in high school, I was a part of an e-federation called OCW. I had made a few characters, but I wanted to make a character in the image of my favorite wrestlers. I ended up settling on a character named “Michael Heaton”, and after a while people on the site just took to calling me “Heaton”. The rest is history. Shout-out to http://ocwfed.com, still going strong after 17 years!

How did it happen that you ended up playing fighting games?

My older sister had brought over her boyfriend’s PS1 to our house when I was maybe three or four years old. The only games he owned that my mom would let me play were Crash Bandicoot and Tekken 2. I was hooked on both of those games, and soon after we had a PS1 of our own as well as all three Tekken games, along with the legendary Soul Blade, and whatever other late 90’s fighting games I could get from the local Blockbuster.

Who do you main in SC6 and why?

I’m a character specialist by trade, so I’ve kept with Siegfried since release. He’s a lot of fun in SC6 compared to SC5, and a few patches ago was very close to my idea of a “perfect” Siegfried. For me, I’ve always enjoyed his “feast-or-famine” kind of playstyle, as well as the emphasis on spacing with moves rather than movement. And of course, roulette is always fun when you can get it to work! Compared to past games, all of these factors combine to one of my favorite representations of Siegfried throughout the years, and I’m very happy with how Project Soul has designed him. I also have been playing Nightmare quite often lately, and I think he is enjoyable for a lot of the same reasons as Siegfried is. I hope to inspire many Nightmare players to use more K6!

What is your opinion regarding SC6?

I think that SC6 is a very enjoyable game that is very, very easy to get frustrated with. I’ve taken a few extended breaks over the years, and it’s difficult to get back into it after an extended absence – there is a large amount of game and character knowledge that’s necessary to know in order to be consistently winning at a top level, much like any other fighting game. In that regard, it’s definitely a struggle sometimes to really get back into it and really start grinding again. But it definitely scratches that itch for more Calibur, and I’m sure I’ll be playing it up until the announcement of SC7, or until someone creates a SC6: EX Edition or something. With that said, there are many minor complaints I have, and I do wish we had gotten a Season 3 to help iron out most of them.

If you could change one single thing about SC6 what would that be?

The fact we didn’t get a Season 3! But in terms of the game itself, I think I would have changed some of the stages. We don’t have as much variety in stages and design as we’ve had in past games. One of the things I believe SC5 did correctly was design stages, and I had hoped that the strange transition mechanic stayed. With that said, however, I’m very glad we don’t have any laser walls or mechanical spider walls in this game.

Fun Fact: Did you know on the Kunpaetku Temple Stage, that the walls move between rounds?

What do you consider to be your greatest SC6 achievement and why?

Let me start by saying that Kayane is a wonderful, kind, beautiful, intelligent, amazing young woman who I consider myself extremely lucky to call my good friend. With that said…

I also had a good showing at SEA Major 2019 and a few Top 16s here and there, but I consider myself to be a tier below the strongest players in the game. For me, I’m just happy to have a captive audience and a camera!

Please answer a single question that you were not asked but you would like to answer!

Legends say if you give an angmoh too much durian and lemon salt candy the night before a tournament, they will either become malfested and turn into an Online Warrior, or ascend and join the ranks of the Legendary Shens…

Thank you for the interview!