The FGC must transition out of grassroots if it wants to survive

The FGC prides itself on being uncooked. The truth is, one of many group’s principal gripes in regards to the Daigo vs MenaRD match a number of months in the past was that a number of the moments felt compelled. It’s a far cry from the out-of-nowhere, great moments resembling Evo Second 37 and Hayao’s air parry at Evo Vegas 2024, also called Evo Second 38.

It additionally prides itself on being a grassroots esports scene, with tournaments often led by passionate gamers and volunteers.

Nevertheless, the issues of being a grassroots group are already displaying themselves. Gamers have been complaining about setups, banned folks displaying up at main tournaments, and varied different issues that might’ve been addressed if the group had a governing physique. As such, I sincerely consider that it’s time for the FGC to transition out of the grassroots scene and into conventional esports.

Genuinely spectacular moments can nonetheless occur in tournaments produced by the bigwigs, consider the Esports World Cup or ESL. The latter, for instance, is behind the Intel Excessive Masters (IEM) occasion, the place the enduring Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev’s falling AWP occurred. What modified is the manufacturing, how the stream is dealt with, and the general simply how skilled every part appears to be like.

Not simply that, however this is able to additionally pave the way in which to standardized match setups, one thing that gamers resembling Victor “Punk” Woodley and Kevin “Twin Kevin” Barrios have beforehand complained about. Twin Kevin put it in an excellent method:

And it’s true. The gamers are usually not preventing for peanuts anymore. The prize cash in tournaments has ballooned in recent times. Capcom Cup has a $1 million take-home cash for the champion and an egregious unfold for many who positioned second and beneath. To qualify for the Capcom Cup, gamers have to win main tournaments across the globe.

The principle downside with that is that every match makes use of a special setup, making it tough for gamers to regulate to the sport. Completely different setups imply completely different responsiveness in-game, making it simpler for gamers to overlook essential movement inputs, resembling dragon punch or a wake-up tremendous.

My suggestion is to cut back the $1 million first-place prize to $500,000 and use the surplus funds to assist the grassroots scene degree up their manufacturing and setups. Capcom, the developer of the most important preventing recreation, Road Fighter 6, must step up and let its esports division take over how Road Fighter 6 tournaments must be performed. They want standardized setups, correct manufacturing, and an overseer at every main match to make sure every part is adopted to a T.

Higher but, an FGC Esports Committee is an actual risk. This takes the esports divisions of all the most important publishers and builders of preventing video games and turns them right into a single committee that may oversee main tournaments throughout the globe. This would possibly seem to be a lofty objective, but when you concentrate on it, it’s the absolute best consequence.

See, most preventing recreation tournaments function a plethora of preventing video games. It’s nearly by no means a single recreation at majors, in contrast to in Counter-Strike 2 and Dota 2 tournaments. Due to that, I consider it may be simpler if preventing recreation builders had a committee to make selections. This doesn’t simply stabilize match high quality for giant video games, but in addition ranges the taking part in discipline for different video games not known as Road Fighter or Tekken.

Apart from that, I consider the committee additionally wants to have the ability to deal with cheaters and participant bans. Sadly, the FGC has had a historical past of points concerning sexual harassment and admittedly unsavory habits. I’ve talked about this in my piece “Combo Breaker 2026 was a sad reminder that the FGC can still be uncomfortable for women,” the place there are nonetheless outliers locally who must be banned and monitored to make sure they’re not getting into main tournaments anymore.

For instance, Joseph “Mang0” Marquez has allegedly entered the Rivals of Aether 2 match at Evo Vegas 2026, regardless of being banned from Tremendous Smash Bros. Melee brackets attributable to his previous behaviors. Whereas there’s an argument that his ban will likely be lifted within the subsequent month, this month is NOT subsequent month. As such, that is basically ban evading since he’s allowed to only change video games to nonetheless attend tournaments.

Lee “Infiltration” Seon-woo, a six-time Evo champion who was banned attributable to home violence allegations by his spouse, has been attempting to affix the group once more. That is really instance of how a governing physique would work: Capcom banned him from collaborating in any tournaments the developer is concerned in, which is just about every part. Till now, he’s been attempting to rejoin the group, however Evo has been agency in refusing to confess him.

Now think about a gaggle tasked with doing this persistently. The bans would’ve been carried out throughout tournaments, and people who find themselves attempting to keep away from them could be reprimanded pretty. Not simply that, however this additionally protects people who find themselves uncomfortable with sharing an area with individuals who have finished dangerous issues previously.

Moreover, the group can even have the bandwidth to completely examine bans to ensure they’re truthful to all events. It simply makes issues simpler for gamers who need to have enjoyable with out worrying about assembly unsavory folks within the bracket.

Preventing video games may be one of many first esports scenes earlier than esports was even a factor. The primary S-tier Counter-Strike match was the 2000 CPL Europe Cologne, whereas the primary premier StarCraft match was the 1998 PGL Season 3. The primary large Road Fighter match? Road Fighter II Turbo Championship ’93, a 7,000-player match held on the Ryogoku Kokugikan Area, the identical venue the place the Capcom Cup is being held. Not simply that, however the match’s organizer? Capcom themselves.

This might’ve been the beginning of a wave that might’ve elevated the scene into conventional esports. Even sooner than StarCraft. However for some motive, the group appears to have taken a step again and mentioned that they’ll deal with issues on their very own. Due to this, I consider that the expansion of FGC as an precise esports league has been stunted.

It’s puzzling to consider why the scene remains to be not as large because it’s purported to be, as a result of the FGC has each attainable aspect to make it an attention-grabbing esport to comply with. We’ve storylines resembling Daigo Umehara’s legacy and a Tekken area, Pakistan, that all of the sudden appeared out of nowhere and dominated everybody. To maintain it a little bit related with the FIFA World Cup season, it’s like if Cape Verde simply popped up within the match after which dominated Argentina within the finals.

Now, that’s a head turner, isn’t it?

With Capcom and Bandai Namco getting concerned as soon as once more, there’s a actual likelihood that we’re heading within the conventional esports path. Capcom has the Capcom Professional Tour, Bandai Namco additionally has the Tekken World Tour, and even Arc System Works has the Arc World Tour.

However I consider Capcom is doing issues the flawed method. As I discussed earlier, the Capcom Cup has one million {dollars} in take-home cash for the winner and an egregious prize pool spread for the remainder of the members. I consider that the builders are doing this for the headline of “Participant wins $1 million taking part in video video games,” hoping to entice new gamers to attain that lofty objective.

Nevertheless, we don’t want that. 1,000,000 {dollars} taking part in isn’t a uncommon factor anymore. For instance, Lee “Faker” Sang-hyeok’s wage is estimated to be much more than that. League of Legends gamers, particularly, have fairly excessive salaries relying on their groups, and I’d consider Counter-Strike 2 prime gamers could be the identical. Needless to say’s simply their salaries. That doesn’t embrace their match winnings

Because of this I firmly consider that the Capcom Cup ought to have much less prize cash and as a substitute use the surplus to develop the grassroots scene and switch them into tournaments with correct requirements.

I do know that every part I discussed right here appears a little bit too optimistic. Not simply that, however it may also take a very long time. Nevertheless, I consider that the present state of Evo may be step one to it.

Proper now, Evo is owned by Saudi Arabia’s very own RTS. That is necessary as a result of Evo is receiving funding from them, which they will use to enhance the standard of their tournaments.

This then signifies that Evo proper now is not only Evo Vegas. Evo Japan and Evo France at the moment are a factor, with Evo Singapore and others arising throughout the subsequent few years. It is going to basically change into a circuit in its personal proper, just like what BLAST and IEM do with their Counter-Strike tournaments.

I do know lots of people are saying that this takes away the status of Evo being essentially the most legendary match collection within the FGC, contemplating that it’s the place a number of moments have been made. However I consider Evo’s enlargement to completely different elements of the world will really shine a lightweight on the lesser-known areas of the FGC.

This, in flip, will foster higher competitors within the nation and would possibly even produce world-class gamers in time.

So, what does this imply for the FGC? One of many complaints I’ve seen about large companies being concerned within the manufacturing of tournaments is that it could ultimately result in a “clear” surroundings the place trash discuss is frowned upon. They don’t need to be held back by guidelines on what they will and might’t say.

Nevertheless, we’ve really been “clear” for fairly a while now when it comes to broadcasting. When was the final time you heard of a commentator at a big match simply let go of the F-bomb on stream? It’s simply not a factor anymore. We’re even crushed by Counter-Strike 2 casters who sometimes curse throughout Main tournaments, in contrast to ours, which appear to have been eradicated.

Relating to trash discuss, different esports have trash discuss! League of Legends gamers have trash discuss, Counter-Strike additionally has trash discuss, you identify it, they in all probability have a persona whose principal factor is speaking trash.

Take Faze on the CS2 Austin Main, for instance. s1imple is yelling at his opponents to not push, Finn “karrigan” Andersen is making ambulance noises after every spherical win, and David “frozen” Čerňanský is educating his opponent learn how to shoot utilizing the right-click. That is the Main, they usually really made the playoffs!

One other instance, identical Main: Dan “apEX” Madesclaire gave the viewers an enormous center finger. He even recorded himself whereas flipping off everybody within the venue.