(Disclaimer: Missing Person is involved with the production of Street Fighter Crash, and is featured in the following video. He is not affiliated in any way with Core-A Gaming outside of friendship with Gerald Lee and Guy Citron of the production team.)
With Street Fighter Crash going on currently and being televised nationwide on cable television in South Korea, the question has yet again arisen about how to keep Street Fighter grassroots or whether to take it completely eSports. With that in mind, Gerald from Core-A Gaming explored the issue in his most recent video. He showed some of the behind the scenes of the production of the event, as well as explored how the event itself is tied into the grassroots community that encompasses the ArcadeStream players and production team.
The video features some of the thoughts on the eSports side of the debate from famed players such as Infiltration, Xian, Xiaohai, as well as Nin, who is currently commentating for the Korean side of production and is currently putting in work to learn Street Fighter. Gerald also gets takes from the English commentator staff, such as Ryan “Wood” Underwood, Etienne “Captain Maumau” Maurin, and Corey “Missing Person” Lanier, who discuss their thoughts of being thrust into the eSports side after commentating as a hobby for many months.
While this video neither seeks to sway you to one side or the other, it does posit some thoughts on the matter, and even ends showing that at the end of the day, the scene is still grassroots even after the glitz and glamour of being in an eSports arena fades.
Source: Core-A Gaming