There are many reasons why any SC player should knowBigpapachunk’s name. Main of those? He is the organizer and streamer for SCVI@Wednesday Night Fights, but wait… There’s more!
Twitter: @Bigpapachunk
Twitch: Bigpapachunk
Youtube: Bigpapachunk
Birth Year: 1991
Country: California, USA
If you had to introduce yourself in three sentences to some SoulCalibur player who didn’t know you, what would you say?
Hi, I go by Bigpapachunk online and in most places. I currently am one TO and streamer for Wednesday Night Fights and I also am an organizer for NorCalibur which is my own local scene. I’m very new to the FGC in general, but I’ve made a lot of friends and met a lot of cool people and have been having the time of my life so far!
What is the origin or meaning of your nickname?
I am a fairly large guy, and one day a friend of mine in highschool just called me that during lunch and it stuck. Doesn’t mean anything specific, but I like it so it stayed.
How did it happen that you ended up playing fighting games?
SoulCalibur VI is actually my first and really only fighting game, other than a little Guilty Gear: Strive, that I have ever played seriously and consistently. I got into the game shortly after its release, I want to say around January 2019, at the recommendation of my best friend who also wanted to get into it. They looked around and found out about our local scene at Wednesday Night Fights when it was still offline at its prior location at the Esports Arena in Oakland and we started showing up. I attended NCR 2019 as a spectator and got to experience my first major and had a lot of fun just seeing the FGC in its natural habitat (any random hotel ballroom or hotel rooms lol).
Soon after I became a part of the regular local group found out that the previous leadership was going out the door and there was a need for someone to step up and keep things moving to grow the scene. So, I said screw it and bought something like $600 worth of streaming equipment, read some online articles and asked some friends on how to stream and just went for it. I still don’t really know what I’m doing, all I know is I love the game and my scene and all I want is for people to be able to enjoy playing the game and to be able to get better while making friends. It’s wild and I absolutely love it.
Who do you main in SC6 and why?
I main Sophitia, and sort of like my introduction into fighting games and SoulCalibur, I was basically told she was a good character to start with. She is a fairly simple character in terms of her overall moveset and how they function and can be used, which I definitely think is her biggest strength. She doesn’t have moves that have a bunch of options to remember or apply which helped me when I first started out learning how all my buttons and inputs work. I do think that to play her well requires a lot of knowledge and understanding of not just the game itself, i.e. block punishment or attack strings, but the ability to pay attention to your opponent’s habits and tendencies so you can utilize her moveset against that.
She has really good tools to stop any character in the game from doing what they want to do, but it takes a good player behind the controls to understand how their opponent is using their own tools and what they are looking to do so you can counter it. I also have been learning Talim a little and that character is crazy, haha.
What is your opinion regarding SC6?
Well, in general my opinion is very high regarding the game.
It is really fun to play and has a lot of freedom of expression between its wide cast of characters who are all so different from each other and can be played in so many ways. There are for sure some issues with the game that could be addressed, but there is nothing about the game that I feel makes it unbalanced or completely unfair for any reason. We are very fortunate to have a development team that really cares about the game and put in so much time, effort, and care into the game with relatively little time and resources.
My biggest complaint is still our netcode, but that is also such a complex and difficult thing to change as it is really built around the game itself that to change it requires almost an entire rework of the game so… well we do what we can with it. I also have no experience playing any previous SoulCalibur title so I can’t really compare them.
If you could change one single thing about SC6 what would that be?
Hard to say just one thing, lol. Again, I think the biggest adjustment would be the Netcode, but I already talked about that. I think Reversal Edge has a really weak spot in terms of the game’s meta and doesn’t really add much to make the game more fun to play so I wouldn’t mind if it went away. I also think Soul Charge is a cool mechanic, but could use a rework in terms of how it functions for all of the characters.
What do you consider to be your greatest SC6 achievement and why?
For me personally, it has been all of the people I have met and friends I have made. I am still learning how to be a better competitor so I don’t have much to same in terms of my actual performance in game… Yet! But, I will say that the community around this game is spectacular. I have interacted with people all across the globe and made so many connections I would never have otherwise if it wasn’t for this game, and I am so thankful for it. Anyone can play this game and anyone can become a top competitor, all you need is to have that fighting spirit and to just be nice to everyone you meet and understand that you will be able to play and learn from anyone.
Please answer a single question that you were not asked but you would like to answer!
Umm, well I guess I can talk about some of my other hobbies. My first passion is music and it is what I studied in college and is also what I do for a living, well teaching it anyway. I play trombone and most other brass instruments, as well as bass and guitar a lot at home. I think cats the most fantastic animal to have ever existed and I watch A LOT of Vtubers in my freetime as well. Hololive is Lit. Thank you again for asking to interview me!!!
Thank you for the interview!