Growing up an orphan, Tony Narvaez (aka DadHatTony) of the South Carolina Phantoms always had music and video games to keep him out of trouble. Now as a father, he shares that experience with his son. “I was always a fan of WWE. It’s just a childhood nostalgia that never left. I get to share that with my son,” Narvaez explains.
This security guard supervisor and self-taught musician and rapper has also been exercising his talent as a music producer for video games. “Coexist Gaming had a competition to make music for a game PlayNYC was developing and I won. Until then, no one knew me as a producer. They only knew me as a rapper,” Narvaez says. Since then, the requests for his beats keep coming. He’s even performed in front of Snoop.
Narvaez’s night shift affords him the opportunity to be a part of the Ultimate Endgamers League (UEL), but it’s his commitment to inspire his kids to do great things that motivates him to make the 5- to 6-hour drive each way to attend UEL competitions.
“About three years ago, I started trying to do stuff that I always wanted to do,” he explains, “I look at my kids and see friends of mine doing amazing things and I wonder what went wrong with me. I still have time to right them and I want to show my kids I can do it.”
More importantly, Narvaez wants to show his kids that he’s doing what he wants to do – not sitting behind a desk and giving up. “For me, it’s personally to fulfill a dream that I’m the best at what I say I do… I’m a pro gamer,” he says.
Anyone who knows Narvaez knows he’s never without a book and a pencil because he loves writing. “I watch as much tape as I can in real sports or gaming and I make notes about how the best teams are using winning strategies,” he explains, “If I can write down a strategy and read it constantly, the moment I put it to action it’s already in second gear.”
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