Well, Capcom Cup 12 has ended and congrats to Sahara for winning the entire thing. I will be frank and say I don’t think many people thought Sahara, who’s technically a virtual unknown in the Street Fighter 6 world, would take it all. Still, his Ed took it all the way and, thanks to him and a good chunk of the Capcom Cup 12 finalists, maybe we’ll see the character get some big nerfs in the upcoming balance patch! Thanks, Sahara! I really hate fighting Ed! But let’s go check out the match that had him win the entire Capcom Cup 12.

Oops! Sorry! That’s the wrong clip. And I won’t be able to show you the match where Sahara won the prestigious Capcom Cup 12 and cement himself as one of the best Street Fighter 6 players out there. That’s because Capcom will not allow anyone, not even themselves, to show clips of the Capcom Cup 12 Street Fighter 6 finals! You see, after having all of their sponsored tournament’s available to stream live via services like Twitch and YouTube for years, Capcom pulled a fast one when they announced that this year’s Capcom Cup will only be available on pay-per-view. Okay, I have no doubt that, in a week or so, Capcom will put all of the matches on YouTube. But, if you wanted to watch the finals of Capcom Cup 12, you’d have to shell out around $5 US. It’s not a huge amount but, after getting something for free for years, $5 US seems like a lot of dough.

Obviously, this didn’t sit well with the fighting game community at large. I understand Capcom’s reasoning for doing this. Right now, Street Fighter 6 is incredibly popular in Japan, which is why the streaming service that’s offering it is in Japanese. But it does leave out a lot of other people out in the cold. And Capcom appears to be really strict about making sure this pay-per-view event remains locked out. Until Capcom officially puts out the videos, no one can re-stream Capcom Cup 12 or replay clips of the Top 16. And you know they’re serious since Capcom recently banned a player for re-broadcasting just that!

Capcom did kind of ease up on the entire pay-per-view backlash as they did give us a “consolation prize” on how to watch the Top 16 matches. And, honestly, I think it’s kind of ingenious. During Capcom Cup 12’s live broadcast of the Top 16, the matches will also be streamed on Street Fighter 6’s Battle Hub. This is an interesting idea. After all, the Battle Hub is supposed to be the place where Street Fighter 6 players and fans can hang out. So, since this is where the players and fans are supposed to gather, why not blast Street Fighter 6 tournaments on the Battle Hub’s big screen?

Well, unlike some fans, I decided to give Capcom the benefit of the doubt. Maybe this is the future of how Street Fighter 6 tournaments should be broadcast. I mean, if the experience is great, then why not? So, I booted up my copy of Street Fighter 6, logged into the Battle Hub and watched the entire Top 16 on the big screen. How was it? It would be so easy to say it was crummy and Capcom should scrap all future pay-per-view plans. But I wanted to give them a chance. So, this was my experience with it.

As I am in the Philippines, I was assigned to one of the Asian servers. Although the Asia Battle Hub servers are filled with non-English speaking people, that seemed fair as that is my location. But as someone who has watched fighting game tournaments and Street Fighter 6 tournaments on Twitch, it just felt weird. I’m so used to reading the chat while watching the games. Maybe the people in the Battle Hub’s chat were talking about the match. Maybe they were just talking about something else. I just felt left out and alienated so, after a while, I switched over to the United States servers.

After I sat my avatar down in front of the Battle Hub’s big screen, I immediately noticed one really big problem: audio desync. Let’s say Sagat would throw one of his signature Tiger Shots. You fully expect Sagat to yell out the name of his special attack, right? Well, no. That wouldn’t happen until after a full six seconds after he throws the Tiger Shot. Yes, I timed it. Six whole seconds. I’m sorry Capcom, but that is just unacceptable! It’s just hard to enjoy what happening on the screen when the sound effects don’t sync up with what is happening on the screen!

Another issue I have with the Battle Hub stream is the quality of the video. No, I’m not talking about the fact there weren’t commentators on there. I knew that coming in. I’m talking about the picture quality. Now, I’m not a big videophile so I can’t be sure. But the stream didn’t look close to HD quality. It was more like 480p or something like that. There also wasn’t an option to go full screen. While that didn’t bother me a whole lot, I do know a lot of people who will have issues with that.

Another problematic matter we need to talk about are the amount of interruptions that happened during the stream. There were more than just a few times when the stream would just cut to who currently had the most wins in that Battle Hub server! Did Capcom really think it was important to let me know some guy has 114 wins when Blaz and Fuudo are tied 4-4? There were also moments when the screen would just go to black. You can hear the match still happening but you wouldn’t be able to see the action! What’s worse is this could happen for minutes at a time… right in the middle of the match!

With all these problems, should we all just write off the Battle Hub streaming experiment and just hope Capcom learns their lesson? In a way, yes. This wasn’t a great way to watch Capcom Cup 12, Capcom! This is supposed to be the culmination of a year’s long journey and this is how you wanted your fans to experience it? But, on the other hand, I do think, if they can fix all of these issues, mainly the low quality and the audio desync, this would have been a fun way to watch Capcom Cup. The question is if Capcom is willing to fix these issues and actually put the time in to make the Battle Hub streaming service work well. I don’t think they will. I bet this put a strain on their servers with all the people logging in just to watch Capcom Cup in this way. And that would also involve a lot of money, time and effort to something they can’t make money off of.

So, I would say a compromise is in order. If Capcom really is committed to this pay-per-view idea (which I hope not), then make going to the Battle Hub to watch it feel like going to Capcom Cup. Make it a big event. Dress up the Battle Hub in a Capcom Cup theme. Give us something like free costumes for our avatars to celebrate it. Plan things out and put out exclusive new costumes for the Street Fighter 6 roster. Make a new stage for each and every Capcom Cup. Say buying these costumes and stages will be put towards making the Battle Hub streaming service work. Do something to make it worth my while to watch the Capcom Cup via the Battle Hub and not just this band aid of a stream.

Do better next year, Capcom.

How did you watch this year’s Capcom Cup? Did you watch the Top 16 live via the Battle Hub? Or are you just going to wait for everything to be posted on YouTube? Let me know in the comments section below!