Capcom Cup 2017 was a ''

Street Fighter V ''Street Fighter V'' is a 2016 fighting game developed by Capcom, Dimps and Taito and published by Capcom for PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Windows, Windows. The major follow-up to ''Street Fighter IV'' (2008) as part of Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' ...

video game A video game or computer game is an electronic game that involves interaction with a user interface or input device (such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device) to generate visual fe ...

tournament that was held in December 2017. 32 players qualified for the tournament by scoring high on the game's leaderboards during the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour. The tournament spanned three days during the

PlayStation Experience PlayStation Experience, also known as PSX, is an annual event for the video game industry presented by Sony Interactive Entertainment used to reveal and advertise PlayStation games and game-related merchandise. The event is open to the public an ...

weekend, and took place in the Anaheim Hilton Hotel and

Anaheim Convention Center The Anaheim Convention Center is a major convention center in Anaheim, California, and is the largest exhibition facility on the West Coast of the United States. It is located across from the Disneyland Resort on Katella Avenue. The original co ...

. The first day of the tournament featured a Last Chance qualifier, which was won by newcomer Naoki "Nemo" Nemoto. The finals were won by Dominican newcomer Saul Leonardo Mena "MenaRD" Segundo, who defeated Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi in the final match.

Capcom Pro Tour

The Capcom Cup was the final tournament of the 2017 season of professional ''Street Fighter V'' competitions, the

Capcom Pro Tour The Capcom Pro Tour is a series of international fighting game esports, tournaments sponsored by video game developer Capcom. The Pro Tour culminates in the annual Capcom Cup, a single-day tournament held in the San Francisco Bay Area. 2014 Cap ...

. Players could qualify for the 2017 Capcom Cup by competing in the fifteen Premier Events, the few dozen smaller tournaments, several online tournaments, and the 2017 Evolution Championship. The 30 players who had accumulated the most points in these events automatically qualified for the tournament.

Tournament background

Anaheim Convention Center Back view 2013

The 2017 Capcom Cup took place over the course of three days, beginning with the Last Chance Qualifier played at the Anaheim Hilton on Friday, December 8. Featuring 164 players from 18 different countries, the champion of the Last Chance Qualifier automatically qualified for the bottom seed of Capcom Cup itself. The Top 32 phase of the Capcom Cup took place on Saturday, December 9. Tournament organizers decided to stick to a traditional

bracket system A bracket is either of two tall fore- or back-facing punctuation marks commonly used to isolate a segment of text or data from its surroundings. They come in four main pairs of shapes, as given in the box to the right, which also gives their n ...

, foregoing the group tournament system that was originally announced. The group tournament system was planned in an effort to make timing more accurate, and the Capcom Cup team stated that they were still looking into it as a possible alternative for future events. The finals of the Capcom Cup, featuring the top 8 players of the event, took place during the

in the

Participants

Du "NuckleDu" Dang, the winner of the 2016 Capcom Cup, announced on November 27 that he would not attend the 2017 edition of the tournament, giving up his auto-qualification to the runner-up of the 2016 tournament,

Ricki Ortiz Ricki Ortiz, also known as HelloKittyRicki, is an American professional fighting game player specializing in the ''Marvel vs. Capcom'' and ''Street Fighter'' series. Ortiz joined the fighting game community in the early 2000s and has since consis ...

. As the

seeding The term seeding and related terms such as seeded are used in several different contexts: *Sowing, planting seeds in a place or on an object *Cloud seeding, manipulating cloud formations *Seeding (computing), a concept in computing and peer-to-pee ...

of the Capcom Cup is fully based on the overall leaderboard ranking, Ortiz obtained the seed number 31, ranking only above the Last Chance qualified competitor Naoki "Nemo" Nemoto. Nemo faced top-seed Victor "Punk" Woodley in the first round of the tournament, while Ortiz faced

Evo 2017 The 2017 Evolution Championship Series (commonly referred to as Evo 2017) was a fighting game event held in Las Vegas on July 14–16 that was part of the long-running Evolution Championship Series. The event offered tournaments for various fighti ...

champion Hajime "Tokido" Taniguchi. The first round of the tournament also featured a match between the high-level Japanese players Kenta "Fuudo" Ai and

Yusuke Momochi Yusuke Momochi, better known as Momochi, is a Japanese professional fighting game player, particularly of ones in the ''Street Fighter (series), Street Fighter'' series by Capcom. Momochi won the Capcom Cup 2014 championship, as well as winning t ...

. Veteran Japanese player

Daigo Umehara is a Japanese esports player and author who competes competitively at Fighting game, fighting video games. He specializes in 2D arcade game, arcade fighting games, mainly those released by Capcom. Known as "Daigo" or "The Beast" in the West and ...

secured the 17th seed during the 2017 Pro Tour, and Brazilian Didimokof secured a place in the Capcom Cup by winning the Latin America Regional Finals. Fujimura "Yukadon" Atsushi won three Premier Events during the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour, ranking 4th in the overall standings.

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

player Benjamin "ProblemX" Simon, meanwhile, won two Premier Events and two Ranking Events, ranking 6th in the overall standings. The 18-year old Dominican competitor

MenaRD Menard may refer to: Places Canada *Menard River, a tributary of the Wawagosic River in Quebec, Canada United States * Menard County, Illinois ** Menard, Illinois * Menard County, Texas ** Menard, Texas * Menard–Hodges site, archaeological si ...

qualified for the Capcom Cup despite the high cost and difficulty of traveling to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

during the Capcom Pro Tour, coupled with the destruction caused by

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was an extremely powerful and devastating tropical cyclone that affected the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly in the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, which accounted for 2,975 of the 3,059 deaths. It is the ...

. Sponsored by The Rise Nation, MenaRD was ranked 25th when the tournament began. MenaRD's first round was against Ibuki-player

Ho Kun Xian Ho Kun Xian () (born 15 September 1990), better known as Xian, is a Singaporean professional fighting games player. Formerly part of Team Razer, Xian was the winner of ''Ultra Street Fighter IV'' at DreamHack Winter 2015. At Capcom Cup 2015 h ...

Tournament summary

Last Chance qualifier

Of the 164 entrants, the winner of the Last Chance qualifier was Naoki "Nemo" Nemoto, who was already considered one of the favorites to win the event. Nemo was unable to qualify for the Capcom Cup due to a lack of free time, and had only competed in five events during the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour. Playing with the character

Urien Urien ap Cynfarch Oer () or Urien Rheged (, Old Welsh: or , ) was a powerful sixth-century Brittonic-speaking figure who was possibly the ruler of the territory or kingdom known as Rheged. He is one of the best-known and best documented o ...

, Nemo played against Lee "Infiltration" Seon-Woo three times during the tournament. The two first faced off in the Winner's Semifinals, where Nemo defeated Infiltration's

Menat In ancient Egyptian religion, a menat (, ) was a necklace closely associated with the goddess Hathor. Operation The menat was held in the hand by its counterpoise and used as a Rattle (percussion instrument), rattle by Hathor's priestesses. It ...

3–1. After beating Brian "Brian_F" Foster in the Winner's Finals by a 3-2 margin, Nemo faced Infiltration again in the Grand Finals. Here, Infiltration opted to switch to his old character of choice

Juri Juri, JURI or Jüri may refer to: Law * Dative singular case of Latin Jus *Committee on Legal Affairs, committee of the European Parliament, known as JURI Places *Juri Upazila, subdistrict (''upazila'') in Maulvibazar District, Sylhet Division, ...

. This switch paid off in the first set, as Infiltration beat Nemo 3-1 and forced a bracket reset. However, Nemo adjusted his play and scored a 3–1 victory of his own in the second set, winning the tournament. Brian_F finished third place after losing to Infiltration in the Loser's Finals.

Main tournament

Nemo knocked top-seed Punk into the loser's side during their first match of the second day, and was then knocked into the loser's side himself after losing to

. Nemo went on to defeat Ryo "Dogura" Nozaki, Didimokof, and Masato "Bonchan" Takahashi in order to make it into the Top 8. Punk lost to Naoki "moke" Nakayama in the fourth round of the loser's side, missing the Top 8 by one game. MenaRD, playing with the character Birdie, managed to remain on the winner's side for the majority of his run through the tournament, defeating high-level players such as Xian,

Kazunoko , in Japanese cuisine, are the eggs or the ovary, ovaries (egg skeins) of the Pacific herring (Japanese: ) that have been Salting (food), salted or dried. Overview ''Kazunoko'' is a product processed by removing the roe sacs (or "egg skeins ...

, Umehara in the quarter-finals, and Itabashi Zangief in the semi-finals. MenaRD was knocked out of the winner's side in the next round by

Tokido , better known as Tokido, is a Japanese fighting game player who plays the '' King of Fighters'' and ''Street Fighter'' franchises. He is known for playing multiple fighting games on a competitive level in addition to Street Fighter, including '' ...

, who was playing with the character Akuma. After winning the loser's final against Nemo, MenaRD faced Tokido once again and managed to reset the bracket with a 3-2 match. Tokido controlled the fighting space using Akuma's ranged fireball attacks and tried to keep MenaRD at a distance in order to frustrate him. However, using unique quirks of Birdie that are difficult to anticipate, MenaRD could unpredictably close the distance, consistently leaping forward to execute a special attack. MenaRD won the last match of the Grand Finals 3–1.

Impact

The 2017 Capcom Cup showcased entirely different

player characters A player character (also known as a playable character or PC) is a fictional character in a video game or tabletop role-playing game whose actions are controlled by a player rather than the rules of the game. The characters that are not control ...

than seen in 2016. Characters such as Ryu,

Ken Ken or KEN may refer to: Entertainment * ''Ken'' (album), a 2017 album by Canadian indie rock band Destroyer * ''Ken'' (film), a 1965 Japanese film * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine * Ken Masters, a main character in th ...

, and

Cammy , also known by the codename , is a player character, fictional character in the ''Street Fighter'' fighting game series created by Capcom. She debuted in ''Super Street Fighter II, Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers'' (1993). She has ...

did not appear at all in the Top 32, and characters such as

Guile Guile or Guilé may refer to: Fictional characters * Guile (''Street Fighter''), a video game character from the ''Street Fighter'' series * Guile, a video game character from ''Chrono Cross'' People * Daniel Guile (1814–1882), British trade ...

R. Mika , better known as R. Mika, is the professional wrestling moniker of , a character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' fighting game series. First appearing in ''Street Fighter Alpha 3'' (1998) as a wrestler trying to make a name for herself, Mika was ...

, and Laura were all knocked out early. Characters that were considered middle-tier at the start of the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour, such as M. Bison and

Rashid Rashid or Rachid ( ) and Rasheed ( ), which means "rightly guided", may refer to: *Rashid (name), also Rachid and Rasheed, people with the given name or surname *Rached, a given name and surname *Rashad, a surname *Rishad, a given name Places * ...

, took the place of these formerly high-tier characters. MenaRD's mastery of Birdie was particularly notable. ''

Shack News ''Shacknews'' is an American video game journalism website founded in 1996. It that publishes news articles, reviews, and cheat codes. History ''Shacknews'' was founded in 1996 by Steve Gibson. The website, originally named 'Quakeholio', was d ...

'' stated that 2017 was an "amazing year ... for ''Street Fighter Vs character diversity." Each of the Top 8 competitors played with a unique character, resulting in a very diverse final day. ''

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks created and owned by the Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With a market share of 43%, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2020, and the third most valuable soft drink brand, behind Coca-Cola and ...

'' described MenaRD's success as "a beacon of hope" for the Caribbean fighting game community. Players from this region face difficulties traveling to events, and few Premier tournaments take place in the Caribbean. MenaRD had stated that he hoped to invest his winnings ($250,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introduced the U.S. dollar at par with the Spanish silver dollar, divided it int ...

) back into his local community and bring about more successful players. In a recap video produced by Capcom, MenaRD said: "kids or teenagers that want to do something in competition, you know, they usually do baseball. They usually do basketball. But I want fighting games or esports, in general, to be an option in my country."

Reveals

During the final day of the Capcom Cup, Capcom announced '' Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection'', a collection of ''Street Fighter'' games that predate ''

Street Fighter IV is a 2008 fighting game developed by Capcom and Dimps and published by Capcom. It was the first original main entry in the series since '' Street Fighter III'' in 1997, a hiatus of eleven years. Designed for the Taito Type X2 arcade hardware, ...

'' to be released in May 2018. Following the closing ceremony of the Capcom Cup, ''Street Fighter'' executive producer Yoshinori Ono revealed the six characters that would be incorporated into Season Three of ''Street Fighter V''. The introduction of the character

Sakura The cherry blossom, or sakura, is the flower of trees in ''Prunus'' subgenus '' Cerasus''. ''Sakura'' usually refers to flowers of ornamental cherry trees, such as cultivars of ''Prunus serrulata'', not trees grown for their fruit (although ...

had been teased leading up to the event and did not come as a surprise. However, a second, unexpected trailer played directly after it, serving as cinematic opening for ''Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition''. The live audience cheered in excitement sudden reveal of familiar ''Street Fighter'' characters such as

Blanka Blanka (; Japanese: ) also known by his birth name Jimmy, is a character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' fighting game series. He first appeared in ''Street Fighter II'' (1991) as one of eight playable characters, and was subsequently featured in ...

, Sagat, and Cody. This trailer also revealed two new characters: G and Falke. ''

'' described Season Three's cinematic reveal as "the pinnacle of Capcom Cup 2017," calling it "the most polished and hype-inducing cinematic trailers made thus far for ''Street Fighter V''."

References

External links

* * {{Capcom Cup Capcom Cup 2017 fighting game tournaments 2017 in esports Esports competitions in the United States 2017 in sports in California