Usually, holding up a bracket isn't something to be proud of. This year at COMBO BREAKER, though, Goichi "GO1" Kishida had a perfectly fine reason to hold up the Street Fighter 6 bracket. You see, he couldn't play his Top 8 Qualifier match in Street Fighter because he was too busy making a dominant losers run in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves. After finishing it off with a flawless run of 12 straight rounds in Grand Finals, GO1 claimed the City of the Wolves crown. Then he walked over one stage to the left and won his Street Fighter 6 match to qualify for the final bracket in that game as well.

For most fighting game players, that's a dream scenario. For GO1, it was just another weekend.

GO1 dabbled with fighting games as a kid, introduced to Street Fighter II after his dad bought it for their Super Famicom. But as a teenager, his primary games were rhythm games like Guitar Freaks. But after attending his first Super Battle Opera, the biggest annual event for Japan's fighting game scene, GO1 fell in love.

"That tournament had Guilty Gear and Third Strike, among other games. Watching the guys onstage had me in awe. I thought they were so cool, and I really liked the concept of 1-v-1 battles," GO1 told Ryan Hart in a 2024 interview. "Matches were decided quite fast as well, which was really attractive to me. I was just fascinated by it all."

GO1 wasn't an instant fighting game success. He had to work at it. "I was really weak then, I had no idea how to get good," he told Ryan Hart. "I was just blocking all the time, trying not to get hit by stuff, just trying to fend off their attacks." But something clicked as he continued to grind. He started to see significant improvement in Melty Blood. "There was this point where why I was winning and why I was losing started to become clearer and I started to understand."

That was the start of GO1 acquiring his first royal title in the FGC as one of the Kings of Poverty. GO1's first major wins came in games with small but dedicated scenes. At Super Battle Opera 2010, five years after the event spurred GO1's infatuation with fighting games, he took first place in Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code. The next year, he won another trophy, this time for Aquapazza: Aquaplus Dream Match.

For the next five years, GO1 would try his best to orient his work and family life around his video game hobby. "In the beginning, I used to work as well, so I didn't really have much time for games. It would be sort of like, every day after I finish work, I'd get to play for one or two hours and have that time dedicated to games. It did mean neglecting my family a bit, and I guess they didn't think it was nice. But it was my hobby, and they showed their understanding around that," GO1 told Hart. "They were really supportive, saying, 'Go ahead, you can play.' I decided to make a proper schedule to outline my gaming time."

The dedication showed. In 2015, GO1 proved his dominance of a wide swath of anime titles at CEOtaku, taking first place in Melty Blood: Actress Again, Under Night In-Birth and Dengeki Bunko Fighting Climax. At this time, GO1 still considered himself a hobbyist. But that year, he was invited to Evo 2015, his first time witnessing fighting games on its biggest stage. He participated in side tournaments, winning the Metly Blood bracket and reaching Top 8 in Blazblue: Central Fiction. But what stuck with him wasn't his success in the side tournaments.

"I was invited to Evo in 2015, before I became a pro," GO1 told 4Gamer in a 2019 interview. "Ever since I saw the main tournament, I've always wanted to stand on this stage and win one day. That's what inspired me to become a pro."

GO1, already 30 years old, knew if he wanted to make a career in fighting games, he had to do it now. His timing was perfect: Street Fighter V released later that year, and GO1 quit his job to take his chance at competing professionally.

In summer of 2016, GO1 put his hard work to the test. In May, he won his first major Japanese event, KVO x TSB, over MOV. He would also finish Top 3 at Thailand's Thaiger Upper cut and China's G-League, with wins over the likes of Marn, Gackt, Eita and Fuudo. But the real test was still yet to come. He made his return to Evo in 2016, taking on the main tournament for the first time.

"When I saw the Grand Finals of Street Fighter IV in 2015, which was Momochi vs. GamerBee, I thought, 'Man, I really want to compete at this level,'" GO1 told Yahoo! Esports in 2017. "It was a little late for Street Fighter IV, but by the time V came out, I knew this was the type of game I wanted to compete in."

With over 5,000 players, Evo 2016's Street Fighter V bracket was the largest fighting game competition of all-time to that point, a mark that would last until Street Fighter 6 broke it with over 7,000 entrants in 2023. GO1's goal was to reach that main stage that entranced him last year. To do so, he'd have to be one of the final 8 players remaining.

After he fell to Nemo in Winners Top 48, his odds looked bleak. He needed to win five more sets just to make it onto the finals stage, and with such a massive and stacked bracket, there would be no easy wins. But slowly but surely, he took name after name: Xyzzy, Snake Eyez, Luffy, Justin Wong, and finally Gamerbee. He wasn't done, though, using his time on the main stage to show everybody he was truly one of the world's best. He took down Nemo in the runback and defeated MOV before finally falling at fourth place to Fujimura.

GO1 didn't bring home the championship, but he came away from that tournament a winner nonetheless. "Evo is a global tournament that brings everyone together, and I think it's the biggest fighting game tournament in the world. It's the tournament that the whole world watches," GO1 told Ryan Hart. "In my case, before I became a pro in Street Fighter V, I got to have a mtach on-stage and was seen by businesses and corporations, and off the back of that became a pro player." It was those matches on stage that caught the attention of CYCLOPS Gaming, the organization that sponsored GO1 for nearly the next decade.

"So, getting a good result at Evo -- well, you can get fame, you can get sponsor support. It can be a really life-changing tournament."

Going forward, GO1 could realize his dream of a fighting game career. Now that he had locked down a sponsor, he could fully focus on what actually matters: the games themselves.

GO1 continued to thrive in Street Fighter V, racking up solid placements throughout 2016 and 2017, including a Top 8 finish at Capcom Cup 2016. In 2018, a new game released that took GO1's full focus.

"It's a game where the more you play, the stronger you become. There are many actions that humans can just barely respond to, and it's fun to learn to do them one by one," GO1 told 4gamer. "When you feel that you are getting stronger and stronger, it motivates you."

GO1 was referring to 2018's DragonBall FighterZ, a game that would fullly establish GO1's place as an FGC legend. He would rack up major win after major win, taking trophies at Final Round, Norcal Regionals, Brussels Challenge, Stunfest and Sonic Boom. Only a few people had shown they could stand up to him, and only one with any consistency: SonicFox, who stopped GO1 at Combo Breaker, Summit of Power and VSFighting.

As Evo 2018, the first Evo for the new game, approached, everyone was awaiting a climactic matchup between the game's two titans. And GO1 knew it. After winning a local tournament not long before Evo, he called out SonicFox with a simple statement.

"You're next."

"Right after the release of DBFZ, I was considered 'the strongest in Japan,' but in the US, SonicFox kept winning various tournaments and was the 'strongest in the US.' At the time, people were saying on the internet, 'Who is stronger, GO1 or SonicFox?' So I said to them, 'Let's start a wrestling match from here.' Then they said, 'GO1, you're already dead,' and they got on board," GO1 recalled in an interview with itmedia in 2020. "I was actually quite conscious of that. I thought, 'As long as I beat this guy, I'll be the best in the word.'"

Despite a stacked field full of great players from a wide swath of fighting games, the final two players standing at Evo 2018's DBFZ bracket were indeed GO1 and SonicFox. GO1 was able to reset the bracket. But he wasn't able to finish the job.

"After resetting, I had a mental breakdown when I lost the first game," he told 4gamer. "I felt that if I didn't do something, I would lose the game, and I couldn't recover and lost."

GO1 would remain one of the strongest DBFZ players through 2019, claiming more major titles at Final Round, NorCal Regionals, COMBO BREAKER, and VSFighting. But he was still searching for both his first Evo championship and his revenge over SonicFox for 2018.

GO1 and SonicFox had their rivalry, but the two were friends and practice partners. GO1 told 4gamer that he and SonicFox probably played 60 casual games at Evo prior to Sunday's finals in 2019. "At first I was winning pretty well, but the more I played SonicFox the stronger he got.... and in the last three games we played, I lost 3-0, and I thought I was in trouble."

This time, GO1 was the one waiting for SonicFox in winners side of Grand Finals. "I was thinking, 'Come on, let me get my revenge!" he told itmedia. "At that time, I was able to concentrate like I had never experienced in the past. Suddenly, I was able to react to things I couldn't react to before, and the opponent's movements became clearer, and I felt like I was moving somewhat slower. I have been in a state of heightened concentration before, but never to that extent."

Despite GO1's flow, it was still an incredibly close Grand Finals. SonicFox pushed him to a game five, a slow and tense game that required every bit of that concentration. Even with the lead, GO1 respected SonicFox's ability to make the comeback with their final character, Kid Buu. With just 33 seconds out of 300 left on the clock, GO1 finally secured the opening that made him an Evo Champion. It didn't take long for the tears to start flowing.

After his Evo 2019 win, GO1 went on to win Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals with wins over Tachikawa, dekillsage and Fenritti, fully claiming his title as the best FighterZ player in the world.

GO1 has one of the longest and deepest resumes in fighting games, but he is far from finished. In 2022, he added yet another game to his trophy case, winning the ARC World Tour Finals for DNF Duel. He continues to thrive in Street Fighter, and he has already qualified for yet another world circuit finals thanks to his COMBO BREAKER win in Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves.

At this rate, there will probably be at least a few more brackets held up by GO1's multi-game talent. But if that's the price of watching his talent at work, it's well worth it.

See more of Go1's journey in Evo Legends Powered by Qiddiya Gaming on EvoFGC