Ahhh, it’s that glorious time of year again. That time of year when players come out of their homes for the first time in months, because it is almost actually warm. The sounds of fight sticks start filling the air. The smells of gamers packed into small and overheated hotel conference rooms penetrates your nasal passages. The cheers of the upsets, and the tears of the masters falling can be heard far and wide. Yes, the fighting game season is kicking into high gear.
This weekend marks the start of the CPT (Capcom Pro Tour) with Final Round 20. Sure, the CPT isn’t the end-all-be-all of the FGC (Fighting Game Community), but it is a pretty big force behind making fighting games a bigger deal when it comes to e-sports. This is but one part of the machine that is the FGC as players are also ramping up for the madness that is EVO. Craziness.
Yet, last weekend I watched a tournament I had not heard of before. It was called HackerFight VI and it was hosted by Facebook. Yeah, that Facebook. Sadly no, Zuckerberg didn’t make an appearance as some sort of special guest or anything like that. However, ninety teams consisting of three players each did make an appearance.
What really got me about this tournament wasn’t so much that it was hosted by Facebook, it was the fact that this was a tech industry invitational. Teams from companies such as Sony, Oracle, Google, Blizzard, NVIDIA, Apple, Cisco, and so many others all sent teams to participate in this tournament. I don’t know why, but it just blew me away to see players representing Tesla make it into the Top 16. It was quite the enjoyable time.
The other part that made this so enjoyable was the commentators. Because this is not an official tournament for any game or company, there is nothing really holding people back. The commentators were able to joke around freely. This made for some great conversations. I’m pretty sure the free beer also helped with that.
HackerFight VI caught me by complete surprise. I’m glad I stumbled upon it on Twitch.TV as it was a blast to watch. It also has me ready for the FGC season to get into full swing. With Final Round 20 this weekend, I am ready to be a bum and sit at my computer and take in all the action!
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