Every scene has its heel. And the FGC is filled with them. Whether it be Smash’s William “Leffen” Hjelte or Marvel’s Christopher “ChrisG” Gonzalez, every scene has someone that they love to hate. To a lot of people, one of Street Fighter’s heels is Ryan “FChamp” Ramirez. Known to have an air of cockiness on stage, FChamp is a relatively humble guy when you get to talk to him. With FChamp being one of the few people playing vanilla Street Fighter characters, and that character being Dhalsim no less, it’s becoming harder and harder not to root for him as he continuously racks up Top 8’s.
Shortly before he competed in the Top 8 for Street Fighter V at Evo 2017, I was afforded the opportunity to talk to Fchamp about what had allowed him to not only make that Top 8 but stay consistently on top.Â
Not a lot of people had you pegged to make Top 8 for Street Fight at Evo this year. When you saw the brackets laid out, did you think that you had pretty good chance this year?
To me, I always feel like I have a good chance overall. Because, I train a lot and I practice a lot and I’ve been doing this for so long that I’m never surprised that I make it to a Top 8. But, once I finally made it to Top 8 I was really really surprised. I was very grateful for all the support. I was very happy, you know?
It’s the one thing that I really need for my career to cement my legacy. To get legendary status. I’ve won multiple events and I’ve won an Evo, but I’ve never really had a Street Fighter Evo medal. I’ve been able to win Street Fighter majors but never an Evo medal. So, finally I feel complete. It’s just such a good relief. That’s why when I playing Marvel 3 right after I got Top 8 I was just so happy that I didn’t have the motivation; my killer instinct. Not that I’m making any excuses. But I was just overwhelmingly happy for the support the fans gave me.
Is it a little bittersweet that this is Ultimate Marvel v Capcom’s last Evo and you’re not in that Top 8?
No, this is the last one and we barely even made it to Evo finals anyways. To me, I’m just happy to support the game. I’ve never really played Marvel 3 seriously until they announced MvC:I. Now, I felt like there was something to look forward to. So, I’ve put in some more time into Marvel.
As you’ve said, you’re someone who has been consistently good for so long. What is it that has allowed you to stay good at, not only one game, but multiple games?
I think it is all just work ethic. I am very lucky to have amazing training partners. I have Justin Wong as a roommate. I can play with Ricki Ortiz and K-Brad. I have PR Balrog to play with. It’s not really hard – you’d have to go out of your way to not be good. If those are your training partners, it’s really really hard to not be good. So, I’m just very grateful. Any accomplishment I have I just owe it to the team. Anyone who has helped me train. I’m as good as I am because of the friends who have helped me train.
Speaking of training, what is the average Fchamp day? How much of it involves practice time and how much of it just relaxing?
So, it’s like this. I do have a lot of social time with a lot of different people. Lately, I quit my job, so I have a lot more time for myself. But since the CPT schedule was so packed this year, when I leave on a Thursday or a Friday to go to an event out of town or out of the country I don’t come back until Monday night or Tuesday. So, I only have Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday to myself. I use that for practice and to hang out with my girlfriend. And after that to go shopping or whatever.
My normal training, if it’s not that, is I wake up around nine and I play Starcraft.
Why Starcraft?
It’s very therapeutic because it’s something different that you do consistently. So, it allows my brain to reset. So, I’ll play StarCraft for like two hours.
Then I’ll have my breakfast; I’ll relax and watch my videos. Then around 12:00-1:00 PM, that’s when I start playing my fighting games. Around 7:00 PM I stop playing. Do a normal dinner time, hang out, chill with my friend. I do everything in the afternoon. Unless it’s before a big tournament like Evo, then I have to use my evenings for training as well.
But normally, I do it like a normal job. So, I start my practice around 1:00 and then end at 6:00/7:00. That’s it.
So, being a part of Splyce and doing consistently well has allowed you to quit your job. Did you ever think you would get to a point where being a pro gramer would be your full time job?
This is a dream come true. I walked away from a six figure salary at Nvidia; I just quit on May 18th of this year. I wouldn’t be able to do that if it weren’t for Splyce who really does a great job of taking care of me. And I have to thank my other sponsor Bud Light. I have two really big who are supporting me all the way. If it weren’t for them I would have to get a normal job. I mean, for me to walk away from $100,000 job; they had to be treating me well.
You can listen to the full version of this interview below:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/342082346″ params=”color=ff00d0&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]
You can ‘Like’ The Game Haus on Facebook and ‘Follow’ us on Twitter for more sports and esports articles from other great TGH writers!
To continue enjoying great content from your favorite writers, please contribute to our Patreon account! Every little bit counts. We greatly appreciate all of your amazing support! #TGHPatreon