This causes a seemingly stalemate situation. Everyone loves beautiful Cinderella stories, except for the big sponsors. These sponsors prefer having well-known names such as Sonic Fox, Daigo, or Knee on the stream rather than less popular players that have made it through the open bracket. Most sponsors require assurances that the tournament will have high and consistent viewership numbers and, in the COVID-less times, high attendance in person. To have big prize pools and high production quality, sponsors are crucial.
Tournament organisation is a two-way street. Most of the money lies at the very top of each game’s pyramid, however, it’s still nothing compared to the bigger esports titles. Many of those are hosted by community members, with smaller prize pools and almost nonexistent partnerships. The FGC encompasses many games and even more local, national, regional, and global tournaments across each title. The FGC is essentially based on this, and hardly anyone would like to get cut off and have no chance of participation for arbitrary reasons. This is something non-negotiable for many, and each and every attempt to circumvent this system is met with waves of negativity. The ability to allow everyone to participate in open tournaments is the heart and soul of the FGC. Image credit: DashFight The issues at hand The answer to why the sector isn’t a top-tier esport is multi-layered and varied, and the ways to address the issue are even more ambiguous and elusive. Simply put, it’s not at all sunshine and rainbows for the community, particularly in terms of prize pools and finances.
Īs of right now, fighting games currently land in a lower esports tier than the above titles. These titles have experienced competition over the years, but ultimately, very few have managed to challenge the games. League of Legends, Dota 2, and various Counter-Strike iterations have sat atop the pyramid for a decade already. When titles like Quake, Doom, StarCraft, Warcraft, and, eventually, Dota and Counter-Strike started to make a name in esports, it was inspired by the competitive nature of fighting games like Street Fighter ( Atari to Zelda: Japan’s Videogames in Global Contexts” by Mia Consalvo ).Įven though fighting games tend to have longer lifespans, in esports, only a handful of titles have had true longevity. People who worked tirelessly poured their whole time into organising an increasingly larger number of events for local communities. But these gatherings served as a foundation to what the future of fighting games would be built on. As such, people used to gather in small circles and play against each other in arcades and video game parlours.Ĭonsoles and gaming, in general, was nowhere near as popular and widespread as it is now. However, back then, there was no way to play online. Initially, the inherently competitive nature of one-on-one fights helped propel the FGC sector into being a prime esport genre even before the term was coined. RELATED: Red Bull Kumite heads to Las Vegas in November 2021 Competitive Roots Image credit: DashFight The scene’s initial surge in popularity was in the early nineties, with Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat shaping the genre. Most of the titles still prominently featured are almost as old as the industry itself.
DashFight’s Elizbar Ramazashvili writes for Esports Insider to discuss FGC’s esports scene and the sector’s development.įighting games have always been an integral part of esports.