Hiya!

So, the final spot for 2023’s Capcom Cup has been filled over the weekend during the Last Chance Qualifiers tournament. Congratulations are in order to Problem X for making it out of this tournament filled to the brim with killers. Not many people, including myself, thought he could beat Punk during Grand Finals. He did it even after coming out of the loser’s side of things, with Blanka, no less, which made it even more amazing. Problem X proved that he’s still got it.

Here’s the thing about the Last Chance Qualifiers. Technically, this was a tournament filled with “losers” who couldn’t make it into Capcom Cup throughout the year. While this may be the case, this was one of the most stacked tournaments I’ve seen in a while.

In fact, this entire tournament was one of the most exciting fighting game tournaments I’ve seen ever since Street Fighter 6 was launched. To me, it beat out even EVO when it came to bringing the hype because of how many good players were competing and there was no “filler” with players just breezing through their bracket. Capcom Cup is happening later. However, I have an uneasy feeling Last Chance Qualifiers might be better than the actual Capcom Cup. This isn’t just the excitement talking, I think. I genuinely believe the actual Capcom Cup will pale in comparison with the Last Chance Qualifiers tournament.

The Capcom Cup tournament is still filled with killers. The road to Capcom Cup had people from all over the world doing their best to fill in one of the 48 spots. It’s not hard to imagine why. After all, the winner of this year’s tournament will win a cool million dollars. Okay, after taxes and all that, it’s not going to actually be a million dollars. That’s still going to be a lot of moolah left over for whoever makes it to the top of the mountain!

Would anyone say the ones who did make it to Capcom Cup are the best of the best, though? Yes, there are pro players like Angry Bird, BigBird, Fuudo, MenaRD, NuckleDu (who I’m picking to win it all) and Snake Eyez, to name a few. However, where are the other big names like Punk, Tokido, Daigo “The Beast” Umehara? Well, they didn’t make it to Capcom Cup. It’s pretty hard to fathom these guys didn’t earn a spot in Capcom Cup and they had to join the rest of the rabble during the Last Chance Qualifiers over the weekend.

This is all because of the way the Capcom Cup placements are being done this year. Capcom did partner with some major premiere offline tournaments like EVO, with whoever won that tournament automatically getting a spot at Capcom Cup. This is why Angry Bird made it in. He had to go through the likes of Punk, Tokido and Problem X in order to earn his spot. The sad thing is, EVO could only give one spot. So this meant high caliber players like Punk, Tokido and Problem X had to try again, which led them to join the Last Chance Qualifiers tournament.

They could have tried to go through the online events but there was a problem: they were region locked. Unlike offline tournaments, where you could just fly to a different location and see if you can make it to the top there, which is essentiall what MenaRD sort of did, you couldn’t do that in the online tournaments. You had to belong in a specific region in order to participate in them. This severely limited some players, to be frank, there are simply some regions where the competition is incredibly stacked.

Take the Japan region for example. This region had players like Fuudo, Daigo Umehara, Tokido, Kawano, Nemo, Kazunoko and many more. However, they were only given a couple of spots! Once again, this led to the “losers” like Tokido and Daigo Umehara having to try to battle the other “losers” in the Last Chance Qualifiers tournament. This did lead to a lot of phenomenal matches throughout the first couple of days for qualifiers for Top 16 during Last Chance Qualifiers. These were some of the best Street Fighter 6 matches I’ve seen and, since everyone participating in the Last Chance Qualifiers were the best players in the world, there wasn’t any “filler” matches throughout the 2 days leading up to the Top 16.

Now, I’m sure players like Sayff, JabhiM, Leshar and Myrken are more than just decent Street Fighter 6 players and will mop the floor with me if I even did run into them online. I’m not doubting they could pull off a serious upset and make it all the way and win this year’s Capcom Cup. However, I do have to clarify it would still be a “serious upset” if they did. They could make a name for themselves afterwards like how MenaRD seemingly came out of the ether to become a 2-time Capcom Cup champion. Still, these guys are still unknowns so I don’t really know how they’ll do in an offline tournament against the known killers.

Another issue I have is the entire grouping system they’re going to do for this year’s Capcom Cup. Technically, all 48 participants are “winners” of their respective tournaments so they’re all considered equals. So, how does the bracket work out for Capcom Cup? Well, for one thing, there isn’t going to be a bracket. Instead, all the players were randomly put into groups via a lottery, leading to some comical groupings, such as Angry Bird, MenaRD, Caba and EndingWalker, 4 of the best Street Fighter 6 players with a lot of momentum going into Capcom Cup, getting bunched together where only 2 of them will make it through based on their win-loss record. That must suck for them but a huge relief for less seasoned competitors like JabhiM and Sayff as they can pray the current EVO champion and the former 2-time Capcom Cup winner can eliminate or, at the very least, tire themselves out.

The main thing for me is actually the fact it’s not going to start out with the regular double elimination bracket. I get the reasoning for the group matches as, like I said, they’re all “winners” so they’re all equal in a sense. However, the double elimination is much more exciting to watch and we saw this already go down during the Last Chance Qualifiers tournament. There were some shocking and heartbreaking eliminations then, like Punk beating Daigo and such. With the group battles, it’s not too bad if you lose. As long as you do better than another person in your bracket, you still have a chance to make it through.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m still going to be glued to my Twitch watching all the group matches. I just don’t think it will be as exciting as the Last Chance Qualifiers. At the very least, the group matches will be interesting but definitely not as hype or nail biting as the double elimination tournament we saw during Last Chance Qualifiers. Top 16 is still going to be a blast, though, because the winner will be making history… and paying a whole mess of tax money to the government. Pay your taxes, kiddies!

Byee!

What did you think of Capcom Cup’s Last Chance Qualifiers? How do you think the actual Capcom Cup will stack against it? Let me know in the comments section below!