Menu

«Previous post | Next post»

You might have watched EVO for the first time last Sunday, or a rerun today. Feeling down after EVO and can’t wait for the next one? Here’s why.

EVO 2015 was host to the hypest Street Fighter 4 and Marvel vs Capcom 3 Grand Finals ever, viewed by over 200k people on twitch. Two titanic games which held the attention of fighting game players over the world the since the years they were introduced (SF4 since 2009, MvC3 since 2012) delivered on what might be their final appearances in the annual EVO.

An amazing end to EVO MvC3 as KaneBlueRiver destroys the meta and wins against all expectations.

In every grand final, a story comes to an end. For avid followers of each storyline, the journey started last year. Each player has a story attached to them, which is now made so much more accessible thanks to online streaming platforms like twitch and hitbox, as well as free video-on-demand platforms like Youtube.

That moment when you realize you haven’t won yet. Game: Guilty Gear Xrd

Imagine that. In the past, people “in the scene” would know each other’s scene story only because they were there to see it. This is why the Fighting Games Community (FGC) is so close-knit, yet inaccessible. Now, anyone with internet access can experience the same thing. This gives us a sense of closeness, as if we know the player, and after chasing a few tournament videos we’re suddenly sitting on their side of the table.

Why has EVO only recently risen to popularity? Well, it happens like that when your tournament experience is limited to the local, and not accessible online. Modern E-sports are based online, whereas fighting games are played locally, two controllers plugged into the same console. Online streaming was and is an integration into the FGC, rather than a given.

As fighting game tournaments are played in a gathering place like a convention centre rather than online like DoTa 2 or League of Legends, the human element in this community is very apparent. There is no anonymity to hide behind, and every person is a person first, with the alias coming in later. Forums like /r/kappa and /r/mvc3 have picked up the bad apples on the internet, but the main driving forces behind the FGC remain very real and very human, both sensitive to what competition is like and how people struggle in the FGC.

At the heart of it, all FGC combatants are friends. Gamerbee shares his emotional loss with Momochi, the winner.

This is why the FGC is so hype. We are all humans, and we are recognized as such. EVO 2015 displayed tremendous stories that we can both share and feel like we are a part of just by spectating. You do not feel as if you are a faceless individual, a twitter follower of a famous player; rather, you are a fan of another person which you might even meet one day at another tournament, be it in EVO2016 or beyond.

E-sports are trying to replicate the human feel by making people feel more responsible for their actions and making them think socially about their interactions in online games, but the sensitivity and thoughtfulness required to do so is often unintuitive to an online medium, given that the reality is that you’re just looking at a machine. Given that, more often than not you’re not thinking literally about the other person, he’s invisible, but rather you’re thinking of the only human in the room, and that’s you. While you can call this self-centred, it’s just the reality of being unable to relate humanly to a virtual interface intuitively.

From EVO to Capcom Pro Tour: The FGC journey goes on, with forerunner Street Fighter 4.

The story, like all stories, ended with no sign of another beginning. EVO 2015, especially to the newcomer, felt like the finale, and you only caught the end. This depressing feeling is also a recognition that you have no idea where and how to experience more of the same thing. No worries, there is always the Capcom Cup to chase for more Gamerbee, Momochi and Infiltration goodness. Shoryuken.com has a tournament ticker, and you can always check Twitch.tv daily to see if there are any tournaments – they are always popular enough to be propped into the main page.

You can follow me on twitter @TheFreakofnatur and email me at [email protected]. Until next time!