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Capcom Cup 2015 was held at Moscone Center in San Francisco, U.S. on Dec. 6. This was a competition between 32 finalists consisting of the winners of the 16 prominent competitions (premier tournaments) recognized by Capcom Pro Tour, the 15 players who accumulated the most points in the officially recognized ranking tournaments, and the winner of the previous world cup.
Although last year it was held by itself in Las Vegas, this year it took place during PlayStation Experience 2015. In the 2014 World Cup, the prize pool was $50,000, which jumped to five times as much this year, reaching the highest total amount of prizes in fighting game history at $250,000. This fact shows that e-sports, including fighting games, have grown in scale.
The final went down in a frenzy between two Japanese champions, Kazunoko, using Yun, and Daigo Umehara, who used Evil Ryu. Although Kazunoko nailed the first match, Daigo won the second round. Kazunoko dominated the third round, but in the fourth, Daigo unleashed his special technique and won the match. The final came down to a tie locked at 2-2, that is until the curtains closed with Kazunoko as the winner. For his victory, Kazunoko was presented with a prize of $120,000 and a trophy.
Throughout the match, the 2,000 people watching the final got excited over each punch and kick, and the whole hall was engulfed in a tense atmosphere as the audience enjoyed the game just as if it was a sport.
At the very end of the tournament, Yoshinori Ono, the producer of Street Fighter V, made an appearance on stage and unveiled two new videos.
The first was Street Fighter Resurrection, a live-action series by the team behind Street Fighter. Seeing Nash in the main role, the whole hall broke into cheers.
The second video screened was the newest opening to Street Fighter, featuring familiar characters such as Ryu and Ken, and also F.A.N.G., who was newly announced at the event.
And lastly, shouting ”1, 2, 3 Shoryuken” and raising their fists into the air, the hall became united, and so fell the curtains on the championship.
This is a Tokyo Otaku Mode original report written by Daiki Nakata and translated by Barbara Tar.
