Category: News

It’s that time of year again, world warriors. Following the reveal of the first two Premier events on this year’s Capcom Pro Tour, Capcom have published the full details on this year’s circuit, complete with information on its revised point structure and Regional Final setup.

As with last year, the reigning Capcom Cup champion will gain an automatic place in the circuit finals — meaning MenaRD has already secured his spot in the final 32. He’ll still need to compete in the Pro Tour though, in order to get decent seeding for the main event. There will also be a Last Chance Qualifier at Capcom Cup 2018, due to its overwhelming popularity at last year’s event. This means that no matter your region or your Ranking points, you’ve still got a shot to make it into Capcom Cup by winning this qualifier.

The overall points structure remains the same, with players rising up the CPT leaderboard by placing at Ranking or Premier events. The majority of the Capcom Cup 2018 bracket will be based on points total, with four players autoqualifying via their area’s Regional Finals. The main change has been to point values, with Premier events giving out the most points while Ranking events awarding significantly less — so get ready to rack up those frequent flyer miles.

Regional Finals are now split into two sections: the Regional Open Premier tournament and the Regional Top 8. The Open Premier is open to anyone, with players from any region being able to earn points for the Global leaderboard. The Regional Top 8 however is restricted to players from that region, with the seeding for that event being based on the area’s Regional leaderboard. The winner of the Regional Top 8 will earn the auto-qualifier spot for Capcom Cup, meaning that out-of-region players cannot snipe spots from local competitors.

Now here’s the bit you’ve all been waiting for: the Capcom Pro Tour schedule. This year’s circuit will have 14 Global Premier events alongside Evo, as well as various offline and online Ranking events.

GLOBAL PREMIER EVENTS

• FINAL ROUND 20 – Atlanta, GA, March 16-18
• NORCAL REGIONALS 2018 – Sacramento, CA, March 30 – April 1
• STUNFEST 2018 – Rennes, France, May 18-20
• COMBO BREAKER 2018 – Chicago, IL, May 25-27
• TW FIGHTER MAJOR – Taipei, Taiwan, June 16-17
• COMMUNITY EFFORT ORLANDO 2018 – Orlando, FL, June 29 – July 1
• VSFIGHTING 2018 – Birmingham, UK, July 20-22
• ESPORTS FESTIVAL HONG KONG – Hong Kong, August 25-26
• CHINA PREMIER EVENT – China, September 1-2
• DREAMHACK MONTREAL – Montreal, Canada, September 7-9
• SOCAL REGIONALS 2018 – Los Angeles, CA, September
• JAPAN PREMIER at TOKYO GAME SHOW – Tokyo, Japan, September
• EGX – EU REGIONAL FINAL – Birmingham, UK, September 20-23
• SEAM 2018 – ASIA REGIONAL FINAL – Singapore, October 13-14
• CANADA CUP 2018 – Toronto, Canada, October 26-28
• RED BULL NA REGIONAL FINAL – November
• LATAM REGIONAL FINAL – Brazil, November 2-4
• CAPCOM CUP 2018 – TBD

NORTH AMERICA RANKING EVENTS

• TEXAS SHOWDOWN – Houston, TX, May 4-6
• TORYUKEN – Toronto, Canada, May 19-20
• DREAMHACK AUSTIN – Austin, TX, June 1-3
• NORTH WEST MAJORS – Des Moines, WA, June 22-24
• DEFEND THE NORTH – White Plains, NY, July 20-22
• SUMMER JAM – Philadelphia, PA, August 31 – September 2
• EAST COAST THROWDOWN – New Jersey, October 20-21

ASIA RANKING EVENTS

• THAIGER UPPERCUT – Bangkok, Thailand, March 24-25
• FIGHTER’S SPIRIT – Seoul, Korea, April 14-15
• SAIGON CUP – Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, April 21-22
• BATTLE ARENA MELBOURNE – Melbourne, Australia, May 16-18
• ABUGET CUP – Jakarta, Indonesia, July 7-8
• FV CUP 2018 – Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, July 14-15

EUROPE RANKING EVENTS

• BRUSSELS CHALLENGE – Brussels, Belgium, April 7-8
• SONIC BOOM – Madrid, Spain, July 7-8
• HEADSTOMPER – Denmark, July 28-29
• FIGHT NIGHT NRW  – Cologne, Germany, August 11-12
• CELTIC THROWDOWN – Dublin, Ireland, August 25-26
• ULTIMATE FIGHTING ARENA – Lyon, France, August 31 – September 2
• STREET GRAND BATTLE – France, September 7-9

LATIN AMERICA RANKING EVENTS

• GAME OVER – Dominican Republic, April 28-29
• THE FIGHT – Columbia, June 8-10
• FIGHT IN RIO – Rio, Brazil, July 21-22
• FURIA TICA 2018 – Costa Rica, August 11
• LIMA SALTY – Peru, August 26-27
• FIRST ATTACK – Puerto Rico, September 1-2
• TRETA – Curitiba, Brazil, September
• NEVER GIVE UP – Chile, September 22-23
• FIGHTING FEST – Dominican Republic, September 29-30
• THUNDERSTRUCK – Mexico, October 6-7
• BUENOS AIRES TRUE SALT – Argentina, October 13-14
• JAM NERD FESTIVAL – Chile, October 19-21

This is only a preliminary schedule, so expect more Ranking and Online Ranking Events to join this list in the future, along each region’s respective Regional Finals. For all the details about this year’s Capcom Pro Tour, head on over to the official CPT site.

Source: Capcom Pro Tour

David Spence’s tapes are back, and we are about to see something from the annals of Evo history. Before the tournament series known as Evo came to fruition, its founders were running the Battle by the Bay series in California.

Footage from these tournaments have rarely materialized, but this time we get to see top level play of Super Street Fighter II Turbo at B5 in 2001. Featured in this tape is play from the likes of AfroCole, John Choi, and Alex Valle, who made top three respectively.

Source: Atari FGC

As the fighting game community steps further and further into the realm of esports, there’s a real fear that its grittier arcade-raised ways will get scrubbed away.  Trash talk is at the very center of the FGC’s soul– it brings hype (and player interest), but also potentially drives away the very suits that want in on the FGC’s growing numbers.

Many on SRK’s forums and comment sections have voiced the opinion that the FGC is too “esports” these days. This is meant to imply that we’ve become too safe, too weak-willed, and too advertiser friendly. Whether this is right or wrong is beside the point, though:

Because even if it’s true, we still have other communities checking out the FGC specifically for the larger then life personalities of our scene.  theScore esports recently asked if our trash talk matched up with selected trash talk of certain League of Legends pros. While many might think the selection of clips representing the FGC is far from the best it has to offer, it doesn’t really seem to matter in this ‘contest’: the muted, passionless insults in the LOL clips are far from being in the same league of even the most out-of-context clips of Pokchop.

Of course, maybe that’s why this video is scary. The LOL clips are what we fear our trash talk might turn into if we keep our current trajectory.

Source: theScore esports

PAX is extending its gaming-festival brand to France in the form of “PLAY Paris Powered by PAX.” And right out of the gate, they are making it clear that they want the FGC involved:

“PLAY Paris Powered by PAX” will be held at the Grande Halle de la Villette on April 21 & 22, 2018. It will feature two days of content across the history of gaming, featuring:

• Hundreds of tabletop games to play
• Classic arcades with “unlimited credits”
• Freeplay areas for both console and PC games
• Expo for the 30th anniversary of the PC Engine
• Esports tournaments
• Exclusive panels and ceremonies (including the “Retrogaming Awards”)
• The Indies Conference
• Live concerts featuring “The Toxic Avenger” and the “Neko Light Orchestra.”

Of course, readers here at SRK will be most interested in the tournament aspect. Here’s just some of the FGC tournaments and events of interest:

• “Street Fighter V French Cup” 5v5 Team Tournament
• Dragon Ball FighterZ Tournament
• Windjammers tournament for the official “Windjammers Flying Power League” tournament circuit
• “Dissidia Cup” finale for Square Enix’s Final Fantasy Dissidia NT tournament circuit

Tickets are on sale now. You can find out more information on PLAY’s official site, and via their Twitter and Facebook.

Source: PlayByPAX