The Japan Cup was a Street Fighter V tournament held at the 2016 Tokyo Game Show On September 17, 2016. As a Premier Event of the Capcom Pro Tour, the winner of the event automatically qualified for the 2016 Capcom Cup. The tournament was won by GamerBee, who defeated Poongko in the finale.
The Tokyo Game Show has been a major gaming convention held in Tokyo since 1996. The Tokyo Game Show became part of the Capcom Pro Tour at its inception in 2014. The Street Fighter tournaments held at the event were traditionally sponsored by Mad Catz, but due to significant financial issues – losing more than $4.3 million from April to December 2015 – Mad Catz was forced to drop their sponsorship of the 2016 event. The company also dropped their sponsorship deal with two Street Fighter players: Taniguchi "Tokido" Hajime and Hayashi "Mago" Kenryo. Capcom confirmed that the tournament was to be held as scheduled regardless. [1] [2] The Japan Cup was one of three esports tournaments that were held at the Tokyo Game Show on September 17. [3]
Unlike prior instances of the tournament, the Japan Cup featured an open 256-player bracket. However, the tournament had an unexpected large amount of registrants, with over 100 people signing up to compete within an hour after the registrations opened. A few hours later, the Japan Cup organizers announced that they were forced to hold a lottery to see who would compete. At the time, the tournament's organization told Yahoo Esports that there would be no preferential treatment for any players. [4] Tokido, Fuudo, Yusuke Momochi, and Infiltration, who had all already qualified for the Capcom Cup, were absent from the tournament. Regardless, many established players with strong contending positions on the Capcom Pro Tour leaderboard attended, such as Kun Xian Ho, Daigo Umehara, and Justin Wong. [5] [6]
The Daily Dot reported after the first day of the tournament that Japanese players such as Go1, Eita, and Kazunoko were playing well, making it through their respective pools, while American players such as alucarD and Gootecks were not able to do so. [7] However, Taiwanese player GamerBee faced off against South-Korean player Poongko in the finale. GamerBee defeated his opponent and won the Japan Cup by playing a highly defensive Necalli. Timothy Lee of ESPN noted that the tournament "solidified" the tier list of Street Fighter V, with Cammy, Ken, Chun-Li and Karin being popular picks in the top 8. [8]
Place | Player | Alias | Character(s) |
---|---|---|---|
1st | Bruce Hsiang | ZW|GamerBee | Necalli |
2nd | Chung-gon Lee | Secret |Poongko | Cammy |
3rd | Ryota Inoue | GGP|Kazunoko | Cammy |
4th | Rinta | Ken | |
5th | Joe Egami | MOV | Chun-Li |
5th | Kenryo Hayashi | Mago | Karin |
7th | Kanamori Tsunehori | Gachikun | Rashid |
7th | Hiroyuki Nagata | HM|Eita | Ken |
9th | Cojiro | Chun-Li | |
9th | Ryota Takeuchi | John Takeuchi | Rashid |
9th | Naoto Sako | HORI|Sako | Chun-Li |
9th | Hikari Nishikawa | Hikarin | Necalli |
13th | Takuto Sato | BegetaminB | Chun-Li |
13th | Goichi Kishida | HM|Go1 | Chun-Li |
13th | Kitipaamu | Zangief | |
13th | Nauman | Ken |
Tokyo Game Show, commonly known as TGS, is a video game trade fair and convention held annually in September in the Makuhari Messe, in Chiba, Japan. It is presented by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association (CESA) and Nikkei Business Publications, Inc. The main focus of the show is on Japanese games, but some international video game developers use it to showcase upcoming releases/related hardware. The duration of the event is four days. The first two days of Tokyo Game Show are open only to industry attendees (business) and the general public can attend during the final two days.
Daigo Umehara is a Japanese esports player and author who competes competitively at fighting video games. He specializes in 2D arcade fighting games, mainly those released by Capcom. Known as "Daigo" or "The Beast" in the West and "Umehara" or "Ume" in Japan, Daigo is one of the world's most famous Street Fighter players and is often considered its greatest. His longevity is seen as an incredibly rare thing in the world of competitive video games. He currently holds a world record of "the most successful player in major tournaments of Street Fighter" in the Guinness World Records and is a six time Evo Championship Series winner.
The fighting game community, often abbreviated to FGC, is a collective of video gamers who play fighting games such as Marvel vs. Capcom, Mortal Kombat, Soulcalibur, Street Fighter, Guilty Gear, The King of Fighters, Blazblue, Super Smash Bros., Tekken, Mobile Suit Gundam: Extreme Vs., Dead or Alive, Samurai Shodown, Shadow Fight 2 and many others. The fighting game community started out small in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s referred to as the grassroots era, but it has grown to a larger scale in the 2010s, with many tournaments being held around the world. This is predominantly due to the rise of esports, online gaming, and digitized viewing habits on live streaming sites such as Twitch.
The Capcom Cup is an annual fighting game tournament specifically focused on the Street Fighter series. The event's first incarnation was in 2013 which featured Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition version 2012, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Street Fighter X Tekken version 2013 as the three main games each with 8 qualifiers. In 2014, Capcom Cup was an Ultra Street Fighter IV exclusive tournament with 16 qualifiers. The 2015 Capcom Cup was doubled to a 32-man format and was later increased to a 48-man format beginning with Capcom Cup IX in 2022–23. The series of qualifying events for the tournament are known as the Capcom Pro Tour and include many of the largest, most prestigious pre-existing fighting game tournaments such as Evolution Championship Series and DreamHack.
Capcom Cup 2015 was a professional Ultra Street Fighter IV video game tournament that was held at Moscone Center in San Francisco on December 6, 2015. 32 players qualified for the tournament by winning one of the 16 Capcom Pro Tour Premier Events or by acquiring points at them. Kun Xian Ho won three of the Premier Events, coming in third place at the Capcom Cup. Many high-profile players, including Justin Wong and Bonchan, lost two consecutive matches during the early rounds of the Cup and were eliminated. The Grand Final was a match between Mad Catz' Daigo Umehara playing as Evil Ryu and Kazunoko playing as Yun, the latter winning the match 3–2.
Bruce Yu-lin Hsiang is a Taiwanese esportist fighting games player who specializes in Street Fighter where he mains Adon and Elena in Ultra Street Fighter IV, and Necalli in Street Fighter V. GamerBee is currently sponsored by ZOWIE. GamerBee finished second at EVO 2015 after losing to Yusuke Momochi. He placed 13th at Capcom Cup 2015. GamerBee was announced as one of the first two players for Red Bull Kumite 2016's Street Fighter V tournament. He finished second at the Street Fighter V event in the 2022 Asian Games, winning a silver medal. GamerBee won two gold medals at the Global Esports Games in the Street Fighter V events at Singapore 2021 and Istanbul 2022.
Keita Ai, better known as Fuudo (ふ〜ど), is a Japanese electronic sports player specializing in the Street Fighter series. Fuudo entered the fighting game scene in 2005 playing Virtua Fighter 4. Fuudo has won various fighting game tournaments, including the World Cyber Games and Evolution Championship Series. Fuudo has been described by multiple journalists as the world's best R. Mika player.
Stunfest 2016 was a fighting game tournament that took place on May 21–22 in Rennes, France. Being a Premier Event of the Capcom Pro Tour, the winner of the event would qualify for the 2016 Capcom Cup. The Grand Finals of Stunfest 2016 were dominated by Asian players such as Tokido and Daigo Umehara, with European players like Luffy being eliminated on day one. Japanese players Fuudo and Yusuke Momochi faced off in the final round, with Momochi winning the tournament.
NorCal Regionals 2016 was a Street Fighter V tournament that took place in Sacramento, California on March 25–27. Being one of the eleven Premier Events of the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour, the winner of the tournament automatically qualified for the Capcom Cup in December 2016. As the 14th NorCal Regionals event, NCR 2016 featured a "Pool of Death", where players registering "at the door" rather than in advance were punished by being placed in the same pool with one another. The Pool of Death was won by Vietnamese player Marn, who was knocked out of the Top 8 by Tokido. The tournament was won by Infiltration, who dominated the competition throughout the finals.
Final Round 19 was a fighting game tournament that took place in Atlanta on March 18–20, 2016. Being the first of the eleven Street Fighter V Premier Events of the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour, the winner of the tournament automatically qualified for the Capcom Cup in December 2016. The finals featured a variation of Japanese and United States players, both young and old, though was won by Korean player Infiltration. The arcade controllers of three high-level Razer Inc.-sponsored players failed during the final day of the tournament, which prompted the company to temporarily pull out its sponsorship deals. The organization of the event was criticized by Community Effort Orlando-founder Alex Jebailey.
Capcom Cup 2016 was a Street Fighter V video game tournament that was held in December 2016. 32 players qualified for the tournament by winning one of the eleven Capcom Pro Tour Global Premier Events, Evo 2016, one of the four regional events, and/or by scoring high on the game's leaderboards. Street Fighter V was released shortly before the start of the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour, replacing Ultra Street Fighter IV from the previous season.
Lupe Fiasco versus Daigo Umehara was a Street Fighter V exhibition match between rapper Lupe Fiasco and professional Street Fighter veteran Daigo Umehara. The game, held shortly before the public release of Street Fighter V on February 15, 2016, resulted in a three-to-two win for Fiasco. The match has frequently been criticized for possibly being staged, and the celebrity's later association with professional Street Fighter play has resulted in mixed opinions among the fighting game community.
Hajime Taniguchi, better known as Tokido, is a Japanese fighting game player who plays the King of Fighters and Street Fighter franchises. He is known for playing multiple fighting games on a competitive level in addition to Street Fighter, including Tekken, Marvel vs Capcom 3, and BlazBlue. Tokido is a three-time EVO champion, having won Capcom vs. SNK 2 in 2002 as well as winning Super Street Fighter II Turbo in 2007 and Street Fighter V ten years later. Tokido has had 28 Evolution top 8 finishes, having EVO medals in 12 different games across more than 20 years.
SoCal Regionals 2016 was a fighting game event that took place in Santa Ana, California on October 14–16. Held by Level|Up, the event featured eight tournaments, among which one of the eleven Street Fighter V Premier Events of the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour.
The regional finals of the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour were a series of closed Street Fighter V tournaments held throughout the world. The champions of the four different regions – North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia – automatically qualified to compete at the 2016 Capcom Cup. People qualified to compete in their regional finals by scoring highly on their regional leaderboard or winning ranking events during the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour. The four tournaments all took place between October 15 and November 19, 2016.
The Canada Cup is an annual Canadian fighting game event founded and organized by Lap Chi Duong. The event was launched as the Calgary Cup in 2009 and was initially held in Calgary, Alberta, but the tournament moved to Toronto, Ontario shortly after, returning to Calgary every few years. The Canada Cup is a major Street Fighter tournament, generally being the final event in the annual Capcom Pro Tour.
The 2017 Evolution Championship Series was a fighting game event held in Las Vegas on July 14–16 that was part of the long-running Evolution Championship Series. The event offered tournaments for various fighting games, such as Street Fighter V, Tekken 7, and Injustice 2. Over 10,000 people registered for the event with Tekken 7 receiving double the number of players from the previous year.
Victor Woodley, better known under the name Punk, is an American Street Fighter player.
Capcom Cup 2017 was a Street Fighter V video game tournament that was held in December 2017. 32 players qualified for the tournament by scoring high on the game's leaderboards during the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour. The tournament spanned three days during the PlayStation Experience weekend, and took place in the Anaheim Hilton Hotel and Anaheim Convention Center. The first day of the tournament featured a Last Chance qualifier, which was won by newcomer Naoki "Nemo" Nemoto. The finals were won by Dominican newcomer Saul Leonardo Mena "MenaRD" Segundo, who defeated Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi in the final match.
The 2018 Capcom Pro Tour is the fifth edition of the Capcom Pro Tour, an annual season of Street Fighter V tournaments that are officially sponsored by Capcom. The 2018 Capcom Pro Tour followed several months after the release of Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition and started off with Final Round 21 on March 16. Similarly to the 2017 season, this season featured seventeen Premier Events, a few dozen smaller tournaments, several online tournaments, and the Evolution Championship. In these tournaments, competitors gained points needed to qualify for the 2018 Capcom Cup, which was held in December.