Coliseum

Editor’s note: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the writer, and do not reflect Shoryuken.com as a whole.

Skullgirls and its community have appeared rather touch-and-go to the rest of the FGC. What is baffling to some is the inconsistent numbers at tournaments, and problems with tournament organization, while at the same time doing things like raising nearly 80,000 for Breast Cancer Research, as well as funding their own game’s DLC. These prior tournament hiccups lead many in the general public to feel like Skullgirls players didn’t really exist, or simply refused to make it out to tournaments.

Just recently, the community released an open letter to tournament organizers on themselves as a community, and their ability to make events. The link is here, but the letter reads as follows:

The Skullgirls community is very much alive and well, and we have a number of players willing to travel to events and support our scene. The strongest example of this is Combo Breaker, which the community as a whole has decided to support for giving us a chance to feel respected while playing the game we love.

However, our players are spread thin and don’t have the ability make every Major on the calendar as big as Combo Breaker. After inconsistent levels of support from some events and some that have put forward unrealistic expectations from the community, we have decided to plan out which events we want to focus attendance on ahead of time.

The letter also includes a message for organizers of events the Skullgirls community isn’t focusing on:

We do not mean to dismiss any event or the people behind them. This is not because we are unwilling to accept opportunities to shine by Tournament Organizers, but as we currently are we simply cannot make every event a big one. Instead, we have chosen to focus on events in a way that allows us to have the most fun with each other and with our game

…

This list is not set in stone, however. We are always enthused by TOs who are willing to interact with us, so if you have a showing you want to make big for Skullgirls—regardless of where it falls on the calendar—please reach out to us and let us know what you want.

The letter gives a list of events that the community is intending to focus their efforts on, due in large part to those particular events being hospitable to Skullgirls 2nd Encore players. Those events include Frosty Faustings, NorthWest Major, Combo Breaker, CEOtaku, and GUTS. Combo Breaker should sound pretty familiar when talking about Skullgirls, as it was the biggest event for the community in over a year. There was a lot of high level play there, which was analysed in-depth here. NWM VIII went really well for Skullgirls, which may shape up to be even better at NWM IX after the showing Skullgirls put on there this year. CEOtaku generally had really positive reception from last year, and Frosty is already on good terms with the community. GUTS has been actively supporting Skullgirls for years, so the choice to support them back is natural.

This also isn’t the first time that the Skullgirls community has collectively made their needs and intentions known. Earlier this year, the community collectively decided to alter the tournament standard for matches, making them best-of-five sets instead of best-of-three. That format has been going for a few months now, and the feedback is generally positive to the change.

The growth of the Skullgirls community is something fairly unique in the FGC. While the SGC originated from the modern Fighting Game Community, it wasn’t quite accepted into either the standard titles or the anime titles. Anime players didn’t tend to gravitate to it because it wasn’t anime enough, and everyone else felt like the game was too anime for them. Even among Marvel players, the community Skullgirls was directly targeted towards, the game didn’t appear to snugly fit in. This splinter from the mainstream games wasn’t immediately noticed by the Skullgirls community, however. It took some hardships to realize this as fully as it is realized today.

For the first year or two of the game’s release, the community largely stuck to mainstream FGC behaviors. The Skullgirls community saw Evo as a Mecca, making their place in side tournaments as big as possible, with its entry into the EVO 2013 being an “unofficial 9th Evo title” of sorts. In addition to the wide flocking to Evo despite never being a main title, the Skullgirls community tried to make every event as big as possible (which amounted to the “10 players is a SG Major” joke), but players struggled to entice others into playing and noticing their game. This method of building their community was the primary way most modern players did so, so it made sense that this was the way Skullgirls players tried to operate. It was the only way they really knew how to operate, and there was no other clear options to consider.

However, after a time, the community began to stir. Waiting for other FGC players to come in and play the game was not working, and the influx of players from the DLC started to slow down. Talk of a new way of handling events–both for themselves, and the community–started to spread among players. People wanted to go to an event and feel good about their effort, and feel like they had a chance to earn a place at the table. This talk became more pronounced after Evo 2014, where problems with the stream left only the Top 4 of Skullgirls being streamed instead of the Top 8, but became much more intense after the success of Combo Breaker 2015. Combo Breaker saw the Skullgirls community make an overwhelming showing during pre-registration, with sheer numbers and lots of out-of-country players. As a result, Skullgirls was treated to pot bonuses, stream time, Main Game status, and room on the big stage to play, leaving Skullgirls players finally feeling rewarded for the passion and dedication that the community was known for.

Since that event over a year ago, the community has been slowly but surely forming into something new. In what could be described as a “Guerilla Warfare Tournament Presence,” Skullgirls has begun picking and choosing its battles based on prior experiences and events that give them room to grow, leading to 2016 being the most successful tournament year for the game since launch, despite 2016 not being over. While Combo Breaker will likely be the biggest event of the year for SG, there are two more events the community is looking towards for this year, GUTS4 and CEOtaku. Considering that Combo Breaker was as big as it was, it seems almost like the finale, with these next two events kicking off the start of Skullgirls’ tournament tour.

While this “Skullgirls Tour” is a largely unofficial thing, it has been fascinating watching the community’s attitude grow and form into what it is today, and I can only imagine where it’ll go from here. Could this Open Letter stir any reaction from TO’s, either on or off of this list? How starkly will this list grow or change in the coming year? In the midst of the “Skullgirls revival” that’s going on now, could this more direct and accurate method of tournament presence spark interest in the larger FGC? Only time will tell, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store.

Sources: Skullheart; GUTS4; CEOtaku