Capcom’s E-Sports Expansion Includes 30th Anniversary Tournament Series

Well now. Look at Capcom giving their fanbase a bunch of games on current consoles that we can all love and enjoy without Fightcade. I mean…sure, the best Alpha game doesn’t get online but Alpha 3 does (that’s just a nitpick). Point is, the Street Figher 30th Anniversary Collection is looking pretty good. Even better for all the players that pre-order and get Ultra Street Fighter 4…except for Switch. Which, I understand. Still. I’d love USF4 on my Switch.

In any case, Capcom seems just as excited. So much that they’re going out their way to have three whole tournaments for them and give out $7K per tourney to the winners. Currently, all we know about it is the payout and that the first of the three will happen at CEO in Florida on June 29th. Any further details will be given out later. Sounds kind of dope to me. It’s like they’re trying to be CapGOD again. Looking around though? The players seem a tad confused as to why this is happening.

Why this tournament? Is this all just to promote the games? Or is this just a harmless means of celebrating them? Also, I’ve seen a really misguided take on this whole tournament, but we’ll discuss that later. For now, the purpose. It’s no secret that Capcom has had to dig itself out of a hole in order to be back in the public’s good graces. Even now, there are many people who don’t trust Capcom as far as they can throw them. Others still have their grudges over past decisions such as cancelled games. Some of us will never forget.

Why not throw a tournament to celebrate these old games? We all clap and want to participate, they get promotion. Everyone wins. If that’s all it comes down to, then I say go for it. However, I hope they handle it correctly and not make this confusing. There’s gonna be twelve games there; five of which is Street Fighter 2 and its variants. No offense to those who love Street Fighter 2, but can we not? Can we not watch that game? Please? I know people really love that game but of the games here? The Alpha series has the most spectator appeal in my opinion. Street Fighter 3 would have been my choice, but this is a tournament for money. We would have just seen Ken, Chun-Li, and maybe Urien all day.

That sort of leads me to my other concern. I don’t know where people got this idea that this tournament would bring in new blood, but I…I don’t know man. That’s like sending a sheep to a lion’s den. A den of starving pissed off lions. These newcomers won’t know the touch of death combos in SF2, the ISM system or the “optimized” custom combos of the Alpha series, and lord help the newcomers who try to parry mid tournament. Maybe I’m being too skeptical, but these are arcade perfect ports and there are people with their own cabinets just to have that experience in their own living rooms. They’re heavy hitters and $7K is nothing to joke about. So, if newcomers do come in, I wish them luck.

Looking at this tournament though is a little bittersweet. On the one hand, I’m always down to see some high level Street Fighter play. But, then I remember the game that Capcom had to forget for reasons we may never know fully but can speculate. Of course, I’m talking about Marvel vs Capcom Infinite. Yeah, I know most hate it. Yeah, I know it’s dead. Pat yourself on the back for a dead game. But myself and plenty of others still like that game and play it. It sucks that games that are WAY older than this one are getting more attention than this new one. But that’s how things go it seems. Thankfully, the tournament scene for it isn’t dead. The community lives, and that’s all I can ask for.

All in all, this seems relatively fine. It’s nice to see Capcom supporting their now mainline franchise with this collection and support others in the same way like they’re doing Megaman and Megaman X. They even brought over that Monster Hunter game people wanted for the Switch. Good for them. Now if we can get Power Stone? Rival Schools? A Captain Commando game? Ghosts ‘n Goblins maybe? Perhaps a Bionic Commando that DOESN’T SUCK? Man, Breath of Fire though? Viewtiful Joe would be nice. Maybe even finally see that Deep Down game I’m convinced is mass hallucination at this point? Only Capcom knows what the future holds, but I’m willing to hold out hope. Even if they did cancel Mega Man Legends 3…the bastards. But what do you all think? Are you gonna try to compete? Think you can take $7K? Or are you content with watching the nostalgia train? Let us know what you think.

[For Information visit the official site: https://streetfighter.com/sf30thseries/]

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