Fighting Games Friday: Companies vs. Tournaments Ultimate Evolution 2022
This, for whatever reason, was the week in which a couple of large gaming companies started a small skirmish with the tournament community. But it was all a long time in coming.
As certain games get larger and more popular, companies realize how much they stand to make off promoting and hosting tournaments for them, and they’ll eventually want more control. These companies will rarely come out and say this is their specific intent, but their decisions will benefit them most of all, sometimes to the detriment of the communities.
The newest fun started with the Evolution Championship Series, frequently shortened as Evo, confirming that the titles to be featured at Evo 2022 will be announced on March 8th. But they saw fit to make sizable announcement right off the bat: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate will not be part of the event. “We are saddened that Nintendo has chosen not to continue that legacy with us this year,” the organizers said in their statement posted to Twitter. “In the future, we hope to once again celebrate the Super Smash Bros. community alongside them.” There are people who think this will equal a free spot for a game they’re more interested in, those who believe Smash Bros. isn’t a real fighting game. (It is; I’m sorry.) It’s difficult to hear them over the Smash Bros. fans justifiably upset that they won’t see Ultimate on the biggest stage of them all this year.
There’s no indication of what happened behind the scenes, and we’ll probably never know the full story unless some brave soul leaks it. But it wouldn’t surprise anyone if Nintendo is the key organization to blame here, because it’s not like they haven’t done something similar before. There’s the memorable time when they told Evo’s organizers at the last minute that Super Smash Bros. Melee couldn’t be played at Evo 2013, though they reversed their decision after deserved fan backlash. Considering that Evo 2022 is almost precisely five months away, they’re unlikely to flipflop this time.
There are good hypotheses for why Nintendo would do this. The company frequently hosts their own tournaments for Smash Ultimate, and other titles like Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon 2. They perhaps want all the control over how tournaments are run, even though a professional organization like Evo wouldn’t allow for anything, let’s say, off-kilter to happen while the game is being played. There’s also a possibility that Nintendo wants to keep a distance from the Smash Bros. community at large at this moment thanks to the stream of sexual harassment and assault issues that have been revealed since summer 2020. It could also be all of the above. Neither organization here seems willing to talk, but what’s clear is how this will be a messy situation for everyone except Nintendo themselves and probably Evo.
It’s not just Nintendo: Capcom’s up to messy stuff too. Capcom announced a set of changes for Street Fighter V tournament hosting duties as part of their Community Licensing Agreement earlier in the week. Among the “Qualification Criteria” section, three points stick out. The first one entails how prize pools for each event must be clearly announced beforehand, and must be under $2,000 for each of them. For the second, sponsorship contributions must be under $5,000 per event. For the last one, tournament organizers cannot charge any fees to spectators to participate in any event. There are also comparatively minor rules, like Capcom reserving their right to use photos, videos, and streamed footage for promotional purposes. Capcom posted a “we see you, we hear you” statement after the backlash, but answered very little.
— Capcom Fighters (@CapcomFighters) March 1, 2022
There’s a good write-up from David Graham, aka UltraDavid, about how this could affect tournaments going forward. The new rules aren’t as catastrophic as some fans initially figured they were for the tournament scene now that an ace attorney working in eSports has read over them, outside the need for more planning from organizers that could be its own hassle. But they nonetheless suggest that Capcom wants more control over what tournaments they’re not sponsoring do, and the option to use pictures and footage from events for free advertising. There’s uncertainty as to what will happen with these rules and precisely how they’ll affect tournaments that draw more than 200 spectators, particularly for venues that host them on a frequent basis. We’ll just have to wait and see whether this necessitates the revival of an underground Street Fighter scene.
We were bound to reach a point where larger companies will want to exert more control over how tournaments handle their games, and this is just the start. It wouldn’t be a surprise if Capcom extended this to Street Fighter 6 when it’s ready for the tournament scene in (presumably) 2023, since it’s unlikely that these rules are a subtle way to choke the SFV scene before the next game arrives. (Players will simply move on naturally, unless SF6 is very bad.) Don’t be surprised when Riot Games does something similar with Project L whenever it arrives. If the control ever gets too bad, there are plenty of smaller games that can be played at locals instead.
About The Author
Geoff
News Editor | Geoff is some nerd who writes for a blog and thinks he's knowledgeable. He write a lot about video games, but is capable of writing about other subjects, too. Twitter
