Capcom Cup X Announced
During the conclusion of last night’s Capcom Cup IX Top 16, Capcom’s President and COO, Haruhiro Tsujimoto, stepped on stage to announce the tenth Capcom Cup, Capcom Cup X. It was quite surprising to see one of the top Capcom executives making the announcement, which had some people speculating it was going to be a significant announcement. Tsujimoto’s time on stage was quite short but it was important enough to have all of FGC Twitter talking about it afterwards.
The Return Of Offline Premier Events
The first part of the announcement: the return of offline premiers. The last time the Capcom Pro Tour had multiple offline premier tournaments was 2019.
The tournament landscape in 2023 is very different from how it was in 2019. A lot of these tournaments don’t exist anymore (Final Round, NorCal Regionals, Celtic Throwdown, etc.). I think it’s safe to assume that CEO 2023 is part of the list of offline premiers as well as Evo 2023. It is a shame that SF6 is releasing right after Combo Breaker 2023 because that tournament would easily be an offline premier.
We can only speculate what tournaments would be considered offline premier tier in 2023. In North America, the three biggest offline tournaments we have are Combo Breaker, CEO, and Evo. Is Capcom going to host more of their own offline tournaments like they did for the CPT North America Open 2019 (which took place in Las Vegas)? I personally would love to see the US Red Bull Kumite LCQ (which also took place in Las Vegas) become an offline premier.
Another question is: will these offline premiers be direct qualifiers for Capcom Cup X? In the past, winners of premier tier offline tournaments would be qualified directly to Capcom Cup. I personally think that is what is going to be happen for Capcom Cup X. Capcom seems to be leaving behind the Global Ranking Point Leaderboard from Capcom Pro Tour 2017-2019.
Online Premiers And World Warrior
The second part of the announcement: the return of online premiers and world warrior. For Capcom Pro Tour 2022, there were three ways to qualify for Capcom Cup: online premiers, offline premiers, and world warrior.
Even though offline premiers technically returned in 2022, the only offline qualifiers for Capcom Cup IX were Evo 2022 and the Capcom Cup IX LCQ. All of the 45 other Capcom Cup IX competitors qualified through 19 region-locked online regional premiers and 26 world warrior circuits.
The biggest question here is: how many competitors can qualify for Capcom Cup X? Is Capcom really going to stick with 47 competitors divided into 8 round robin groups? Or is Capcom going to return to the traditional 32 competitor double-elimination bracket? I personally prefer the traditional 32 competitor double-elimination bracket but the round robin groups were certainly entertaining to watch this year. The issue is logistics and time management for round robin groups. Committing 10 days to a single tournament is incredibly exhausting and expensive for all parties involved.
Side Note: Why did Capcom Cup IX only have 47 qualified players? The graphic above suggests it was supposed to be 48 players but the final bracket only had 47 players. I do wonder why Capcom did not just allow 2nd place of the Capcom Cup IX LCQ – Kichipa – to take the final spot.
OVER $2,000,000 In Total Prize Money For Capcom Cup X
The final part of the announcement and easily the most exciting one was the announcement of the total prize pool for Capcom Pro Tour 2023. Capcom announced the prize pool would be over $2,000,000. They also noted that 1st place of Capcom Cup X would received $1,000,000!
However, with this announcement comes a lot of follow up questions. This prizing structure seems to suggest an extremely top-heavy prize for Capcom Cup X. What is the prizing going to be for 2nd-32nd/48th place? Is the difference between 1st place and 2nd place at Capcom Cup X going to be over $500,000? How is the rest of the $1,000,000 going to be distributed among the Top 32/48?
These are all very important questions that should be answered soon (preferably before the season starts in Summer 2023). I personally feel like Evo 2023 should see a significant pot boost for SF6.
There were 1,324 players in the SFV bracket for Evo 2022. The winner, Kawano, won a total of…$5,560.80. That is an incredibly sad 1st place prize to see for the most prestigious fighting game tournament. 2/21/23 Edit: it’s my understanding that Capcom’s $2,000,000 announcement is only related to the prize pool of Capcom Cup X. I do hope that Capcom adds additional pot bonuses to tournaments like Evo, CEO, etc.
This also brings us back to the structure of Capcom Cup X. If we return to the traditional 32 player double-elimination bracket, how will the qualifying spots be distributed?
Offline premiers – CEO 2023, Evo 2023, ???, ???, ???
How many online premiers will we have now if offline premiers are returning? How many world warrior spots? This is all under the assumption that we even return to the 32 player bracket. If Capcom decides to stick with the 48 player round robin system, then we will have a good idea of how the tour will be based off of Capcom Pro Tour 2022. In the end, I have a lot of questions about the Capcom Pro Tour 2023 and I hope to learn more in the near future.
Expect to see me at most of the offline premiers for SF6!
DaFeetLee's Dojo 