Fighting games are finally becoming Esports… sorta. At the very least, games like Street Fighter 6 is in the same event as other noted Esports games like DOtA 2 and League of Legends. I’m able to say this because Street Fighter 6 is one of the games featured in the newly created Esports World Cup tournament.

Although this is the first ever Esports World Cup, it’s actually a rebranding of the Gamers8 festival. But it does feel like a totally new event as there is much more diversity in the games featured, as evidenced by them putting in Tekken 8 and the aforementioned Street Fighter 6. The only problem is, based on the recently completed Last Chance Qualifiers tournament for Street Fighter 6, is the Esports World Cup doesn’t seem to get the fighting game community. Or, at the very least, understand that fighting game tournaments have to be handled a little bit differently from more “traditional” Esports games.

I will add a caveat to this post as I’m looking at the Last Chance Qualifier stream done by the Esports World Cup and comparing it to the recently completed EVO tournaments. EVO has always been known as the most prestigious fighting game tournament event and the Esports World Cup has a ton of money to spend. So, it seems only fair to look at EVO and see how the Esports World Cup is handing a fighting game tournament, right?

For me, the issues start even before the Last Chance Qualifier stream even began! That’s because they didn’t stream the qualifying matches of the Last Chance Qualifiers as they opted to only stream the Top 8 of the tournament. That seems like a big oversight as it does make it appear the Esports World Cup organizers don’t realize fighting game fans love these qualifying matches! I understand that, even at EVO, they would not be able to stream each and every match in the tournament. That’s just an impossibility. But at least at EVO, they do show off the ones the fighting game community would love to see!

Then we get to the actual Last Chance Qualifiers stream and, right off the bat, there’s something wrong with the presentation. The stage where the competitors are playing looks a little too plain for its own good. I guess the setup would make sense if it was something like a DOtA 2 or League of Legends as the stage would be filled with tables and computers as those are team games. Street Fighter 6 isn’t so there was just one lonely table in the middle of that vast and gaping front stage. It looked… sad.

There was also a very, shall I say, sanitized presentation to it all. Like they wanted to hide away all of the gaffes that do come with each and every fighting game tournament. Usually, even on big stages like EVO, there would be this big lull in between matches. This is because the players have to go in and set up their controllers by plugging them in and then syncing them to a user. Then they have to test out their buttons and make sure the audio going into their headsets is working. Every person who’s watched a fighting game tournament stream gets this so we kind of expect it and we know how long it’s going to take.

For some reason, the pauses in between the matches jus felt longer. A good chunk of it is because of the Esports World Cup presenters have to pop on stage each and every time they introduce the players! Then they have to play a video package showing off the players doing poses… even though we’ve seen them do those poses before as they’re from the previous video packages during the stream!

I guess doing this for each and every match for other more “traditional” Esports games would be fine because those games can last for around a half hour or even longer. A very long set of a Best of Five, with every match going to the final game and final round, takes around that time! So, a half hour set is the anomaly, not the standard! So, why do they have to do present a lot of fluff in between matches when the fluff becomes much longer than the actual match?

I’m also rather disappointed with how the Esports World Cup would cut away from the players and only show Mike Ross and F-Word talking to fill in the space while the players set up. Now, I do like Mike Ross and F-Word. I’m actually really happy Mike Ross is back streaming with VersusVortex. And F-Word is a great fighting game commentator who brings a lot of hype with his classic “Oh My Days” exclamation of excitement. But we do also want to see the players getting ready and setting up. We like these small interactions of humanity so we get to see them as people and not just players.

There is definitely a lot of room for improvement for the Esports World Cup when it comes to presenting fighting games. The most basic of feedback is to not really treat fighting game tournaments like “traditional” Esports games. It does seem a little arrogant to say fighting games needs to be treated differently from other Esports games. But the circumstances are different. Fighting games are not team games and the matches don’t take too long so a lot of streamlining needs to be done for their presentations to come off snappier.

Hopefully, the Esports World Cup tournament runners are open to feedback as, if they do want to attract the fighting game community, they would also have to show they want to make the fighting game community feel welcome as well. This would mean adapting what tournaments like EVO have done in the past to their presentation.

Oh, and we wouldn’t mind being set free at the end as well.

Not professional in the least but the fighting game community would appreciate it.

What did you think of the Street Fighter 6 Last Chance Qualifiers at Esports World Cup? Let me know in the comments section below!