Following delays, fighting game tournament Capcom Cup has finally been canceled due to COVID-19

Despite its best efforts, Capcom has finally pulled the plug on its personally run fighting game tournament, saying that the COVID-19 pandemic has made it impossible to responsibly run an in-person tournament even with strict precautions.

Due to the rising cases of COVID-19 worldwide we have made the difficult decision to cancel #CapcomCup. In its place we will be producing an online season final for #CapcomProTour February 20th and 21st. Details following: pic.twitter.com/3WsObiSFVA

— Capcom Fighters (@CapcomFighters) January 15, 2021

Capcom Cup is the final part of the Capcom Pro Tour, a company sponsored fighting game tournament that usually brings together the best players in the world. Capcom Cup was different than most fighting game tournaments; while most are open, Capcom Cup is invitation only, ensuring that only the best can enter.

Capcom to establish online fighting game tournament in place of Capcom Cup

Now is a bad time to organize any kind of in-person event of any size. Capcom had initially pushed back the 2020 Capcom Cup in the hopes that the pandemic would be under control. However, as the months went on, it has only become more apparent that many countries have not been capable of effectively responding to the pandemic. In this context, any kind of air travel would only be irresponsible.

Instead of an in-person Capcom Cup event, there will now be an online fighting game event called the Season Final, with an invitation extended to all players who had previously qualified for the Capcom Cup. Given the global representation common at Capcom Cup, it is not yet clear how an online fighting game tournament will account for the differences in time zones or the latency involved in the competition.

The fighting game community continues to make concessions to COVID-19

They just ran a whole season of tournaments online.People like Daigo, Phenom, MenaRD, Infexious, Angrybird, Xian, SMUG, etc, won those tourneys...a.k.a. players that win offline, too.It's ok to want improvements to online, but to pretend SF5 isn't "playable" is exaggeration.

— Emezie Okorafor (@emezie) January 15, 2021

Obviously, this year’s premier fighting game tournament is going to be a little bit different than players are used to. Usually, fighting game tournaments are communal gatherings where players, spectators, and vendors can all gather to share ideas and revel in the excitement together. This year, players will have to compete without the benefit of having that familiar fighting game atmosphere.

Some have drawn comparisons to, of all things, wrestling. When COVID-19 made it nearly impossible for the WWE to have swarms of fans at their events they began airing fights without the crowds. This gave the events an unsettling eeriness as the fighter-performers attempted to put on a show without the kind of blood pumping excitement typical to their venue.

Nonetheless, there doesn’t seem to be any way around this crisis. Fighting game developers will hopefully use this year to learn how to develop the online infrastructure needed to make their online events run smoother, but for now a bad event is better than no event at all, and much better than spreading COVID.