Bonchan plans a pilgrimage across Japan to unite their Street Fighter V competitors.
Red Bull’s Masato “Bonchan” Takahashi seeks to build a stronger Street Fighter V community in Japan, mitigating the lack of an arcade release in an FGC that still revolves around the video arcade model–and one that is becoming seemingly thin, having been pushed into online lobbies to play the current version of Street Fighter.
His plan is to travel across all of Japan’s 47 prefectures and check out each regional scene, while encouraging them to build up their own local connections. “My main goal is to inspire the young players in these regional areas to start their own offline community… While throwing an event might be an exhausting job, it’s also very rewarding, and it’s always better to have a rival or a friend to play and communicate with rather than playing alone at home online.”
Bonchan echoes a prior observation from Twith.Hx.CYG BST|Daigo Umehara: that no arcade version of Street Fighter V has made it tougher for Japanese players to train and communicate in the way they’re used to. But he has a positive outlook on the future of the game and its communities. “I’m looking forward to seeing the cultural differences in these communities, meeting new players, and exchanging ideas. My stops in Hokkaido and Nagoya have been very successful, in my opinion, so I’d like to continue this project in 2018. My goal for this year is to successfully lead this project to grow the local Japanese communities, but of course I will do my best to train hard for the Capcom Pro Tour as well.”
Read the full article and interview from Ian Walker over on Red Bull eSports.
Additionally, you can check out some footage of Bonchan’s own exclusive Nash color–awarded for victory at Genbu Cup–in action in this FT2 against Majorboy, below:
Sources: Red Bull eSports; XusesGB