The 2017 Capcom Pro Tour was the fourth edition of the

Capcom Pro Tour The Capcom Pro Tour is a series of international fighting game 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 Capcom Cup 20 ...

, an annual season of ''

Street Fighter V ''Street Fighter V'' is a fighting game developed by Capcom and Dimps and published by Capcom for PlayStation 4 and Windows in 2016. An arcade version exclusive to Japan was released by Taito in 2019. Similar to the previous games in the ''Stre ...

'' tournaments that are officially sponsored by

Capcom is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. It has created a number of multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being '' Resident Evil'', '' Monster Hunter'', '' Street Fighter'', '' Mega Man'', '' ...

. The 2017 Capcom Pro Tour followed several months after the "Season 2" update of ''Street Fighter V'' and started off with Final Round 20 on March 10. Much like the 2016 season, this season featured fifteen Premier Events, a few dozen smaller tournaments, several online tournaments, and the Evolution Championship. In these tournaments, competitors gained points needed to qualify for the 2017 Capcom Cup, which was held in December.

Background

Shortly after

Capcom Cup 2016 Capcom Cup 2016 was a ''Street Fighter V'' video game tournament that was held in December 2016. 32 players qualified for the tournament by winning one of the eleven Capcom Pro Tour Global Premier Events, Evo 2016, one of the four regional event ...

was played, Capcom rolled out a major update for ''Street Fighter V'' titled "Season 2". Various characters were buffed or nerfed in the update: R. Mika and Chun Li were made weaker in the update, while

Dhalsim is a fictional character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' series. He made his first appearance in '' Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'' in 1991. He sometimes goes by the alias "long-arm" and his fighting ability includes stretching his limbs. I ...

got numerous buffs. Notably, "Dragon Punch" moves and light anti-air attacks were also made less useful. Infiltration criticized the update, saying that various characters were too harshly nerfed or too strongly buffed. In an interview with ''Core-A Gaming'', Infiltration said that "It might be time to swallow your pride and just go with a top-tier haracter" In the months following the Season 2 update, the ''Street Fighter V''

metagame Metagame, Hypergame, or game about the game, is an approach to a game that transcends or operates outside of the prescribed rules of the game, uses external factors to affect the game, or goes beyond the supposed limits or environment set by th ...

evolved strongly and characters such as

Guile Guile may refer to: * Astuteness, deception. * GNU Guile, an implementation of the Scheme programming language * Guile (''Street Fighter''), a video game character from the ''Street Fighter'' series * Guile (''Chrono Cross''), a video game char ...

Urien Urien (; ), often referred to as Urien Rheged or Uriens, was a late 6th-century king of Rheged, an early British kingdom of the Hen Ogledd (today's northern England and southern Scotland) of the House of Rheged. His power and his victories, ...

Balrog A Balrog () is a powerful demonic monster in J. R. R. Tolkien's Middle-earth. One first appeared in print in his high-fantasy novel ''The Lord of the Rings'', where the Fellowship of the Ring encounter a Balrog known as Durin's Bane in the Min ...

, Laura, and

Zangief , based on Russian Зангиев, often called the , is a fictional character in Capcom's '' Street Fighter'' series. Considered to be the first controllable fighting game character whose moveset is centered on grappling, he made his first appear ...

rose in tier lists, despite not having been as viable in the 2016 Tour. In February 2017, Capcom announced that the prize pool of the Capcom Pro Tour would total $600,000

USD The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

, $100,000 more than the year before. In total, 827 players scored points in the overall ranking.

Point accumulation and Cup qualification

In the 2015 and 2016 Capcom Pro Tours, players automatically qualified for the Capcom Cup if they won one of the fifteen Global Premier events. However, in a December 2016 interview, Capcom's Neidel "Haunts" Crisan suggested that the company might do away with this auto-qualification mechanic as players who win high-profile tournaments are likely to earn enough points to compete in the Capcom Cup either way. The qualification system of previous Capcom Pro Tours had been deemed confusing by fans, especially when more than one player wins several Premier Events. Similarly, the Global and Regional leaderboards used in previous Pro Tours were considered overly complex and Regional Events were abused by international players with higher travel budgets. Of the 32 players who will qualify for the 2017 Capcom Cup, 30 will have done so through garnering points by consistently placing highly in Pro Tour tournaments. Premier Events rewarded more points than smaller Ranking Events, and the Evo 2017 ''Street Fighter V'' tournament offers more points than any other tournament of the season. The 2017 Capcom Pro Tour saw an increase in online Ranking Events, with each region having four of such events. The Pro Tour was again split into four regions: North America, Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Regional tournaments returned to the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour, and qualification for these is based on points acquired exclusively in the applicable region. Only eight players can qualify per Regional tournament, one of which qualifies from a "last chance" tournament held the day before the tournament proper. One of the two auto-qualifications went to

NuckleDu Du Dang (born May 12, 1996), more commonly known by his nickname NuckleDu, is an American fighting game player known for playing Guile and Decapre in Ultra Street Fighter IV, Guile and Zangief in Street Fighter X Tekken, and Guile and Rainbow Mi ...

for winning the 2016 Capcom Cup. NuckleDu is still incentivised to compete in the Pro Tour because his

seed A seed is an embryonic plant enclosed in a protective outer covering, along with a food reserve. The formation of the seed is a part of the process of reproduction in seed plants, the spermatophytes, including the gymnosperm and angiosper ...

in the Capcom Cup depends on his leaderboard placement. The other auto-qualification will be granted to the winner of the Capcom Cup Last Chance Qualifier, to be held the day before the Capcom Cup.

Tour summary

The Capcom Pro Tour kicked off on February 17, 2017, in an event that saw various professional ''Street Fighter'' players compete in show matches. This event took place in

Folsom Street Folsom Street is a street in San Francisco which begins perpendicular to Alemany Boulevard in San Francisco's Bernal Heights district and ends perpendicular to the Embarcadero on the San Francisco Bay. For its southern half, Folsom Street runs n ...

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...

and featured show matches such as Filipino Champ vs

Daigo Umehara is a Japanese arcade fighting video game player. He specializes in 2D arcade fighting games, mainly those released by Capcom. Known as "Daigo" or "The Beast" in the West and or "Ume" in Japan, Daigo is one of the world's most famous ''Street Fi ...

Justin Wong Justin Wong, occasionally shortened to just Jwong, is a formerly American and now Canadian professional fighting game player. Wong has won more EVO titles than anyone else with nine tournaments won: seven for '' Marvel vs. Capcom 2: New Age of H ...

vs Snake Eyez, and a rematch between Capcom Cup 2016 finalists

and

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 ...

. The event was simultaneously the launch of

Lupe Fiasco Wasalu Muhammad Jaco (born February 16, 1982), better known by his stage name Lupe Fiasco ( ), is an American rapper, singer, record producer, and entrepreneur. He rose to fame in 2006 following the success of his debut album, '' Lupe Fiasco's ...

's album ''

Drogas Light ''Drogas Light'' (stylized as ''DROGAS Light'') is the sixth studio album by American rapper Lupe Fiasco, released by 1st and 15th Productions on February 10, 2017. This is also his first album under Thirty Tigers following his departure from Atla ...

''. The first tournament in the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour was Final Round 20, taking place on March 10–12 in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,71 ...

. Competitors had roughly two months to familiarize themselves with the Season 2 changes to ''Street Fighter V'' before the first Premier Event. Final Round 20 was won by

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

, earning 400 points in the process. The second Premier Event and first European tournament of the 2017 Pro Tour, "Ultimate Fighting Arena", was held in the Stade Jean-Bouin in Paris on April 8–9. This tournament was won by Tatsuya Haitani after a nine-game win streak. The

2017 NorCal Regionals NorCal Regionals 2017 (sometimes shortened as NCR 2017) was a ''Street Fighter V'' tournament that took place in Sacramento, California on April 14-16. Being one of the eleven Premier Events of the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour, the winner of the tourname ...

were held in Sacramento, California on April 14–16. This tournament was won by Victor "Punk" Woodley who defeated

in the final game. Punk played

mind games Playing mind games (also power games or head games) is the largely conscious struggle for psychological one-upmanship, often employing passive–aggressive behavior to specifically demoralize or dis-empower the thinking subject, making the ...

during this match, distracting NuckleDu on the character selection screen and

teabagging Teabagging is a slang term for the sexual act involving someone placing their scrotum in the mouth of their sexual partner for sexual pleasure, or onto the face or head of another person, sometimes as a comedic device. The name of the pra ...

NuckleDu's character whenever he went down. The Premier Event held on April 28–30 – DreamHack Austin – was also won by Punk, beating Kun Xian Ho in the finals. Punk spent little time taunting his opponent during this tournament compared to his behavior at NorCal Regionals. Reporting on DreamHack Austin, Damian Alonzo of ''

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

'' noted that the character Ibuki was rising in prominence among professional ''Street Fighter'' players. The character was mostly unused in the 2016 season, but Xian, Fujimura "Yukadon" Atsushi, and Goichi "GO1" Kishida all have since started using the character. The fifth Premier Event of the 2017 Pro Tour was Battle Arena Melbourne 9, or BAM 9, held in the

Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre The Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, colloquially referred to as "Jeff's Shed," is a group of three adjacent buildings next to the Yarra River in South Wharf, an inner-city suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The venues are o ...

on May 12–14. This tournament was won by Bonchan, using the character Nash to defeat all his opponents. On May 26–28, Combo Breaker 2017 was won by NuckleDu, defeating Snake Eyez in the finals despite losing to him earlier in the tournament. Punk wasn't able to compete in this tournament due to a schedule overlap with

Eleague ''ELeague'', shortened as ''EL'', and stylized as ''ΞLEAGUE'' is an esports league and American television show that airs on TBS. It was announced in September 2015 as a partnership between Turner Broadcasting and talent agency WME/IMG. ...

Community Effort Orlando Community Effort Orlando (often shortened to CEO) is an annual fighting game event held in Daytona Beach, Florida. Prior to 2018, CEO was held in Orlando, Florida. Introduced in 2010 and organized by Alex Jebailey, the event is known for its str ...

was won by Snake Eyez, defeating Punk in the finals. In August, Haitani won the 2017 Japan Cup, defeating

Fuudo , better known as , is a Japanese electronic sports player specializing in the ''Street Fighter'' series. Fuudo entered the fighting game scene in 2005 playing ''Virtua Fighter 4''. Fuudo has won various fighting game tournaments, including the ...

's R. Mika in the finals. Later that month, on August 25–28, Daigo Umehara won the Hong Kong Esports Festival; this constituted his first win in a Premier Event in nearly a year. In September, the SoCal Regionals were held. This tournament was dominated and won by Japanese player Atsushi "Yukadon" Fujimura.

Capcom Cup

The Capcom Cup concluding the 2017 Pro Tour was held in December. MenaRD from the Dominican Republic, won using

Birdie Birdy or Birdie may refer to: Places in the United States * Birdie, Georgia, an unincorporated community * Birdie, Mississippi, an unincorporated community People with the name * Birdie Blye (1871–1935), American pianist * Birdy (singer ...

Downloadable content

In April, Capcom announced that it would release new Capcom Pro Tour-themed

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...

(DLC) for ''Street Fighter V'', as they did in 2016 as well. 30% of the proceeds of Pro Tour-related DLC packs goes towards the overall prize pool of the tournaments, while 50% of the proceeds is invested in the production of the events. Ryu and Ken were declared to be the "featured fighters" of the 2017 season and fans could purchase alternative outfits for these two characters. Among the Pro Tour DLC packages is a "Premier Pass". Owners of such a pass receive monthly in-game objectives in which they can acquire in-game money. These DLC packages are only available for a limited time and the 2016 Pro Tour DLC was not re-released during the 2017 season.

References

External links

*
Pro Tour Schedule
{{Capcom Cup Capcom Cup