it’s sad, but comes as no surprise
Damn, hope it comes back next year. Still waiting for the day a non Japanese player wins SBO in a relevant game.
marvel’s plenty relevant
Spoiler
ok, maybe not to them
the fall of tougeki has been very sad. to this day the spectacle of the tournament at its peak is unmatched. of course the last 2-3 were disappointing, but spectating the tournament in 2009 (as well as entering last chance quals) was my fondest memory of my whole time playing fighting games. it would be nice to see one last go around at differ ariake with 3s 3v3… a man can dream
thank you so much to Mr Matsuda and the other Tougeki committee members for all the great memories. see you next time, warriors…
Sad news, not just for Japan, but for the FGC in general.
didn’t nin dominate everyone in t5 one time
also xiaohai cleaned up at least one year
Res do eeeet
It’s very sad news.
SBO was the highest level tournament, no doubt about it. Regardless of what issues they might have had, SBO matches were probably the best matches I’ve ever seen.
I thought they were just gone for this year not forever…wth happened?!
ATM the odds of it being gone forever is pretty high, essentially the event had always been eSports’d and ran by a bunch of bloodsuckers who don’t give a damn about the players or the Japanese scene. With it becoming increasingly difficult to be profitable what motivation do they have to bring SBO back?
When one falls, others rise to take its place.
http://arc-revo-cup.jp/
http://hydragp.info/overtheworld/
etc. etc.
what makes you say this?
If you mean big tournaments sure but I wouldn’t really say that either one of those tournaments is taking SBO’s place. Those are company-sponsored, promotional events, while SBO had more variety in its game lineup. Japan has no “Evolution tournament” of its own now. Sucks for that place.
any tournament that claims to be an SBO replacement needs 3s and MOV. this is important.
Tougeki has always had the best tournament matches. Sadly making people pay to watch hurt them more than it helped.
Planet Zero, screwing over BananaKen and Hsien Chang, promising free streams last year then breaking the promise, last year’s open air debacle, promising double elims at least for AE2012 then breaking the promise, paying players a pathetic amount for winning, … why did you think Daigo would rather attend a charity event than SBO last year?
Japan can’t give big money prizes for tournaments. Hasn’t every long running tournament had its share of problems? Plus its a complicated invitational format. How profitable do you think it really is for you to assume they don’t give a damn about the players. I’ve stayed home to jack off and drink beer over Evo, so what?
Topanga A league was able to give $12,758 USD to the first place finisher. Then SBO charges things like fees for qualifiers (the American qualifiers each cost $1000 for the arcades IIRC which is why nobody flocked to hold it). Add in the streaming fees and the sponsorship fees and where did the money go to?
Arcadia is going bi-monthly soon, too