Stay on top of the Street Fighter world with the r/SF Radio podcast!
ESE|Sherry Jenix is working hard to help international fighting game competitors confront a challenge that starts before they even pick up a controller. Getting travel visas to actually be able to attend tournaments can prove very difficult — so much that it can outright prevent a player from making it to some big competitive opportunities (such as Capcom Cup, for example). Enter the EFight Pass project:
We’re finally live!
EFight Pass is a program created to help foreign players get their U.S. visas to compete.
For information on our program or how to get a U.S. visa yourself, check out https://t.co/GAGkI6HUYV
Sherry Jenix joins r/StreetFighter’s Joe Munday on this week’s r/SF Radio podcast, where they talk about the details of what it takes to get a U.S. visa for fighting game players, and why it can be so challenging — and how EFight Pass is working to help.
You can listen to r/SF Radio on any of the following streaming platforms, or watch it out on YouTube. (The podcast includes some NSFW language!) For more info, head over to the r/StreetFighter subreddit.
Get ready for another season of great Tekken action!
Bandai Namco have officially announced the 2019 TEKKEN WORLD TOUR today with a new trailer — and some information on what will be different for this season. Expect to see some new locations as Tekken 7 competition explodes at over more than 25 tournament stops this year!
Competition will be divided into a number of different categories this year, including an all-new category for 2019:
Tournament Categories
Master+: TEKKEN World Tour’s max value tournament category will be held exclusively at the Evolution Championship Series (Evo) in Las Vegas from August 2-4, 2019 at the Mandalay Bay Resort. The Master+ tournament will award Ranking Points to players placing 1st through 49th place.
Master: Offering high-level points for top-tier competitive players throughout the world, these tournaments are the pillars from which TEKKEN World Tour will be built for 2019. Master tournament events are expected to draw international competition and will award Ranking Points to players placing 1st through 25th place.
Challenger: These regional tournaments focus on offering Ranking Point earning opportunities to locations not served by Master tournaments. Challenger tournaments award Ranking Points to players placing 1st through 13th place.
Dojo: Brand new for TEKKEN World Tour 2019 are Dojo tournaments. In an effort to promote competitive participation to TEKKEN 7 players at a more local and grassroots level, TEKKEN World Tour is establishing this new opt-in tournament category. Dojo tournaments will enable tournament organizers from around the world to apply for their tournaments to be awarded TEKKEN World Tour Ranking Points. The Ranking Points available at Dojo tournaments will scale based on tournament size. This opt-in system creates opportunities for players to compete for Ranking Points outside of Master and Challenger class events. All Dojo tournament applicants must use the TEKKEN World Tour opt-in system on smash.gg and register their tournament for consideration. Depending on the bracket size, Dojo tournaments can award Ranking Points to players placing 1st through 9th place.
Ranking Points Distribution
Points earned at TEKKEN World Tour tournaments are awarded according to a player’s tournament placements. Each placement at a TEKKEN World Tour tournament, from Master+ to Dojo, is worth a different number of Ranking Points. Players’ point aggregation will be taken from their best three results from Master+ or Master events, best three results from Challenger events, and best four results from Dojo events. At the end of the year, the top 19 players awarded the most TEKKEN World Tour Ranking Points will be invited to compete at the TEKKEN World Tour Finals. Travel and lodging considerations for invited players will be covered by TEKKEN World Tour. The TEKKEN World Tour leaderboard will be viewable on www.tekkenworldtour.com and via the TEKKEN World Tour’s league page on smash.gg.
From the official press release:
TEKKEN World Tour 2019 kicks off on April 20th, at MIXUP in Lyon, France then continues throughout the year with additional North American based stops in Georgia, New Jersey, Texas, Illinois, Florida, Washington, California, and Toronto, Canada. International tour stops will include Japan, Malaysia, South Korea, Australia, Dubai, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Italy, Argentina, Peru, South Africa, and more. The TEKKEN World Tour Finals will make its return to Asia in 2019 when the world’s best TEKKEN 7 players converge upon Bangkok, Thailand to determine who is the true “King of the Iron Fist Tournament” – more information will be shared at a later date. Prospective competitors can register to compete through each regional event’s registration page to begin their fight to the top of TEKKEN World Tour’s leaderboard.
“Now entering its third season, TEKKEN World Tour for 2019 is going to be bigger, reach more players with its innovative Dojo tournaments, and generate more excitement than ever!” said Eric Hartness, Vice President of Marketing at BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment America Inc. “Every year, the TEKKEN World Tour has set the stage for some of the most dramatic stories to come out of the esports world and we look forward to entertaining the millions of fighting game fans around the globe with another great season of high-level competitive TEKKEN 7 play!”
“Fighting games represent the roots of esports, the early days of fans gathering in arcades and living rooms and making competitive gaming a shared community viewing experience,” said Richard Thiher, Product Manager at Twitch. “As the premier destination for esports, we are proud to carry on that tradition by bringing fans together from all around the world to watch, chat, and experience the best plays TEKKEN 7 has to offer.”
Source: Bandai Namco Entertainment [press release]
Some clarification on how the League will play out, in the wake of the first online qualifier.
The first online qualifying events for the new Street Fighter League took place last weekend, and RobTV and UpToSnuff earned themselves the top spots in the Phase 1 East & West US-Pro 2019 Online Qualifiers. What that means exactly in the League’s structure has been clarified by Capcom’s Esports Director Michael Martin in a recent Capcom-Unity blog.
Winning the online events drops RobTV and UpToSnuff into the League’s draft pool, eligible to compete as part of the main SFL round-robin event. This pool is comprised of six winners from the Phase 1-3 Online Qualifiers, and six “crowd favorites” that will be added via community votes. Six Team Captains (to be selected from the 2018 Capcom Pro Tour season) will then draft players from this twelve-player pool to form the 3-player teams that will fight it out in the round-robin.
The infographic below shows the steps in the process, as well as a little bit about the 3vs3 structure and the somewhat controversial character ban element.
The nine main stage games have been revealed, and registration is officially open for Evolution Championship Series 2019! But whether you want to compete or not, there is a lot more to Evo: you can also help run the event brackets by volunteering to be judge, show off your talent with a booth at Artist Alley, or bring a game to Evo as a side tournament in this year’s new Community Evo Championships.
Application forms for all three can be found on the main Evo website. Sign up now!
If you head to https://t.co/k7jIuWrjgF, you can access application forms for judges/volunteers, artist alley & the Community Evolution Championships (formerly featured side tournaments). Media applications form will open soon. pic.twitter.com/ABVWh17Nik
Registration numbers for the main stage games are already on the rise, of course; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is leading the way into March, but we’ve got a long way to go before we see what 2019’s biggest Evo title is!
Evo 2019 Registration Scoreboard March Edition! 1st – Super Smash Bros. Ultimate 2nd – Tekken 7 3rd – Street Fighter 5 4th – Mortal Kombat 11 5th – Soul Calibur 6 6th – Under Night In Birth 7th – Samurai Shodown 8th – Dragonball FighterZ 9th – Blazeblue Cross Tag Battle#Evo2019
Get ready for some serious action as these regions face off!
Starting at 11:00 AM JST on Saturday (6:00 PM PT tonight) and scheduled to run until 9:00 PM JST (4:00 AM PT), two regions will face each other in a 12 vs. 12 Tekken 7 showdown: the Tekken Pro Championships: Japan vs. Korea has arrived! This Tekken All-Stars event will start with a last chance qualifier before moving to the full-on country vs. country fight.
SNK’s bloody brawler is poised to make a big comeback.
After the initial surprise last year that SNK was reviving the Samurai Spirits franchise (Samurai Shodown here in the West), many fighting gamers forgot that the new game was even on the way until it was announced on the Evo 2019 reveal livestream that the new SamSho would be on the Evo main stage lineup. SNK shared a new teaser trailer alongside this reveal, promising a release for the game worldwide in “early summer”:
The new trailer reinforces the game as an apparent update of the original with some new flourishes — and the heavy damage that fans of Samurai Shodown‘s footsie-heavy combat looks to be intact. It would be a shame for the game to return without retaining the playstyle that makes it stand out, so it looks promising the new game won’t stray too far from the path. But we haven’t seen enough of it yet to be sure! However, we’ll get some more concrete assurance at the end of this month, because the game will be playable — for the first time — at the upcoming PAX EAST 2019.
Nine games will grace the main stage this year, including multiple new titles!
The main stage games for Evo 2019 have been officially unveiled tonight on the Evo 2019 reveal show livestream — and the games are a combination of expected favorites and some new (and not-so-new) surprises:
Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition
Dragon Ball FighterZ
Tekken 7
BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle
Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
SoulCalibur VI
Mortal Kombat 11
Samurai Shodown
While some games are heavily-expected returns (like Street Fighter V and Tekken 7), a notable few are welcome newcomers, such as the upcoming Samurai Shodown and the much-loved Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[st]. Mr. Wizard and MarkMan have also pledged that side events will receive even more spotlight at Evo 2019, continuing the trend from last year in giving other communities more spotlight, even if their favorite game isn’t on the main stage.
The four titles that will be in the arena for finals on Sunday will be (order yet to be confirmed) Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition, Tekken 7, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Registration for Evo 2019 is opening tonight at 7:30 PM PT; head over to the Evo main website to sign up and get your tickets!
Evo 2019 will take place on August 2-4 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.
What games will be on the main stage in Vegas this year?
The official reveal show for the 2019 Evolution Championship Series streams live tonight at 6:00 PM PT on Twitch; where the main stage games for the world’s biggest fighting game event — to be held in Las Vegas on August 2-4, 2019 — will be unveiled!
Another year of the CPT means another DLC bundle for Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition!
Tomorrow’s server maintenance brings a big update to Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition. Capcom has revealed the DLC lineup for this year’s Capcom Pro Tour, and as usual it includes a new stage and three new costumes.
This year’s stage is the Ring of Justice, sure to please fans of Final Fight characters. Kage and Sagat are getting new outfits in this batch, with the Champion’s Choice costume — designed by Capcom Cup 2018 champion Gachikun — to be announced later. (It will probably be for Rashid.) Some additional content will be offered as part of the full Premier Pass bundle as well. Price/content details from the Capcom Pro Tour page are below.
Since 2016, a portion of the CPT DLC sales has contributed towards the prize pool for Capcom Cup, the final competition on the Capcom Pro Tour. For the last two years, fan contributions have made a significant difference in prizing. Proceeds from a portion of the CPT 2019 DLC sales will once again go towards Capcom Cup 2019’s prize pool.
The Ring of Justice stage and three costumes can be purchased separately or as a bundle. In addition to those items, fans who purchase the bundle will receive custom CPT 2019 titles, player profile cards, new colors for characters from all previous and current seasons, and 10,000 in-game Fight Money.
Capcom Pro Tour Costumes
Capcom Pro Tour 2019 Costume: Sagat – $5.99/€5.99/£4.99 Capcom Pro Tour 2019 Costume: Kage – $5.99/€5.99/£4.99 Capcom Pro Tour 2019 Costume: Champion’s Choice Costume – $5.99/€5.99/£4.99
Capcom Pro Tour Stage – Ring of Justice
CPT Stage – $9.99/€9.99/£7.99
Capcom Pro Tour Bundle
Capcom Pro Tour 2019 Premier Pass – $19.99/€19.99/£15.99
Capcom Pro Tour 2019 Costume: Sagat
Capcom Pro Tour 2019 Costume: Kage
Capcom Pro Tour 2019 Costume: Champion’s Choice Costume
Capcom Pro Tour 2019 Stage – Ring of Justice
The following items are available with the CPT 2019 Premier Pass only:
Exclusive CPT-themed color option for all characters (includes all seasons through the current season)
5 Exclusive Titles
2 Exclusive Fighter Profile Themes
A bonus of 10,000 Fight Money
The extra 10,000 FM included in the Premier Pass is a welcome boost to the Fight Money-starved game, although prior years have also included additional CPT missions to earn extra FM as well. We’ll have to wait and see if they return this year, as they are not mentioned as part of the CPT 2019 DLC.
Get ready to find out what fighting games will be on the main stage at Evo 2019: the official reveal show will be on twitch.tv/evo at 6:00 PM PT tomorrow, February 26. Don’t miss it!
The #Evo2019 reveal show takes place Feb. 26th at 6PM PT! Also, for streamers, feel free to join in on the reveals with us and restream the show via @Twitch at https://t.co/pRm0CRLp4y to your followers/community — We're looking forward to the hype & good games!
