PlayStation Japan recently invited two high-level fighting game competitors to showcase a special Ryu-on-Ryu mirror match in Street Fighter V. But this wasn’t a normal exhibition. Instead of playing out the kind of fight you would see at the Evolution Championship Series, the Japanese maestros demonstrated their…

During Smash regional Collision 2019 in New Jersey last weekend, a Super Smash Bros. Ultimate match came to a halt when one of the competitors got annoyed with the gathered audience and walked offstage. This left tournament organizers reeling for over an hour as they tried to come to a solution for both players.

It feels like only yesterday that the fighting game community watched surprise South Korean competitor Hyeon-ho “Rangchu” Jeong crowned global Tekken 7 champion in Amsterdam. It wasn’t, obviously, but it was only three months ago, and the folks behind the Tekken World Tour already have new details to share about what…

This past weekend, a group of Tekken 7 players from South Korea traveled east to take on their Japanese counterparts in a massive 12-on-12 exhibition as part of the Tekken Pro Championships. As the two most talent-dense Tekken regions in the world, both sides fielded impressive teams featuring some of the best players…

Making a living in competitive gaming is difficult, but it’s even harder for folks living in Japan. The island nation limits prize money for video game tournaments, and also, strangely enough, its gambling regulations also apply to the world of esports. These two legal hurdles have made it almost impossible for…

Despite only having happened twice so far, Evo Japan has already become a prestigious stop on the fighting game community calendar thanks to the level of talent it attracts. Last weekend’s Tekken 7 competition was no different, but the champion didn’t come from the ranks of South Korean and Japanese powerhouses who…

There are some things folks have come to expect from fighting game tournaments. Organizers always provide the monitors, consoles, and games necessary to compete, but the venues that these events are held in often lack access to affordable drinking water. This has long been an issue in the fighting game community, but…

Evo Japan 2019 kicked off festivities last night in Fukuoka, ushering in a second year of the Evolution Championship Series spin-off event. The broadcast day opened with a special Dead or Alive 6 exhibition, followed by a stage show that apparently got too risqué for the Evo organizers, who later issued an apology.

Last week, the Super Smash Bros. Melee community in Tennessee fired the first shot in the modern wobbling war when they announced that most of the competitions in their state would ban the controversial Ice Climbers technique. Since then, tournament organizers in four more states have decided to follow suit, setting a…

Despite being old enough to get a driver’s license in much of the United States, the undying Super Smash Bros. Melee has been haunted by a controversial technique for at least a decade. Wobbling, which can only be used by the Ice Climbers, is a whimsical term for a move that is actually quite controversial due to its…

Last year, Capcom made changes to their official Street Fighter V competition, the Capcom Pro Tour, that hurt the qualifying chances of a very specific sector of the fighting game community: those who live outside competitive hubs like the United States and Japan. The adjusted points system impacted players who lacked…

Late last month, Dragon Ball FighterZ received its first new characters since September 2018: fan favorites Videl and Jiren (CORRECTION 10:09 am ET: This story originally misstated the release date of the previous DLC). Since the two newcomers joined the playable roster, the fighting game community has inundated…

Last weekend’s Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour finale in Los Angeles, California, was punctuated with surprises and excitement in just about every match. But while the talent on display was some of the densest the young game has seen over its year of competition, the circuit’s most dominant player was able to walk…

This weekend, the official Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour will culminate at a grand finals event in Los Angeles, California. It’s sure to be an explosive finale, but the fireworks are actually starting on Saturday, as hundreds of players compete in a handful of last-chance qualifiers.

Over the weekend, a monthly Capcom vs. SNK 2 tournament at Japan’s Club Sega Shinjuku held a special exhibition between three established competitors. The event had brought these three players together due to the similarities in how they play the game, particularly their use of a specific fighting style that rewards…

At first glance, Pichu doesn’t come across as a super strong Super Smash Bros. character. The diminutive Pokémon is cute as a button, sure, but its weaknesses meant it was always overshadowed by its fellow cast members in Super Smash Bros. Melee. But that all changed with the release of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

As a kid who grew up with arcades around every corner, nothing feels better to me than sitting down with a balltop joystick and several clacking buttons. But the 90s also gave birth to the universally panned Virtual Boy. Oddly enough, one determined fan has taken the time to produce a high-quality arcade stick for…