The most celebrated fighting game franchise of all time is coming together with the world’s leading video platform and community for gamers. Announced today, Capcom and Twitch are collaborating to deliver the Capcom Pro Tour, the first ever Street Fighter-focused fighting game league. Comprised of a combination of premier events, ranking tournaments, and online tournaments, the Capcom Pro Tour establishes a year-long foundation for the fighting game community, culminating with the grand finals at the Capcom Cup this December.
“The fighting community has always been a huge part of the world of competitive gaming, but has lacked global leagues and structure which other esports communities have benefited greatly from,” said Victor “Victheslik” Denchartphan, Twitch’s FGC specialist. “What Capcom is setting out to achieve by organizing a year-long pro tour in tandem with leveraging the Twitch community is definitely going to change the face of the fighting game scene.”
The goal of the Capcom Pro Tour is to provide an infrastructure which helps support tournament organizers, while delivering increased production values, supplementary video content, and new opportunities for players, content creators and sponsors. The tour will focus solely on the Street Fighter IV series, with the early portion of the tour featuring Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition, then transitioning to Ultra Street Fighter IV after it releases in June.
A total of 16 spots will be available at the Capcom Cup this year, and there are two different ways that players can qualify. Players who win a premier event will instantly qualify, and the remaining spots will be determined using a new point structure which tracks the rankings of players that compete in the tour.
The current line-up of premier events includes:
- Final Round (March 14~16 – Atlanta, GA, USA)
- NorCal Regionals (April 18~20 – Sacramento, CA, USA)
- Southeast Asia Majors (June 20~22 – Singapore)
- Community Effort Orlando (June 27~29 – Orlando, FL, USA)
- Evolution Championship Series (July 11~13 – Las Vegas, NV, USA)
- The Fall Classic (October 10~12 – Raleigh, NC, USA)
- DreamHack Winter (November 27~30 – Jönköping, Sweden)
There will be a total of 10 premier events in the Capcom Pro Tour, and the remaining 6 spots will be determined using the point structure. All premier events retain their independence and core values, and will be collaborating with Capcom and Twitch to deliver the Street Fighter live streams via the Capcom Fighters Twitch channel. More details about the three additional premier events will be announced at a later date.
Points will be awarded to the top 16 placements at both premier events and ranking events. Ranking events are comprised of both trade shows and independent tournaments which are managed and streamed separately from the Capcom Pro Tour. Tournament organizers may apply to become a ranking event by emailing: capcomprotour@capcom.com
The current line-up of ranking events includes:
- SoCal Regionals (February 28~March 2, Los Angeles, CA, USA)
- PAX East (April 11~13 – Boston, MA, USA)
- E3 (June 10~12 – Los Angeles, CA, USA)
- San Diego Comic Con (July 24~27 – San Diego, CA, USA)
Points will be awarded to SoCal Regional placements retroactively, and more details about additional ranking events will be announced at a later date.
Fighting game fans and players can keep track of the action and receive all of the latest news and information at the official Capcom Pro Tour website: www.capcomprotour.com.