Community Effort Orlando (often shortened to CEO) is an annual

fighting game The fighting game video game genre, genre involves combat between multiple characters, often (but not limited to) one-on-one battles. Fighting game combat often features mechanics such as Blocking (martial arts), blocking, grappling, counter- ...

event held in

Daytona Beach, Florida Daytona Beach is a coastal Resort town, resort city in Volusia County, Florida, United States. Located on the East Coast of the United States, its population was 72,647 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is part of the Deltona� ...

. Prior to 2018, CEO was held in

Orlando, Florida Orlando ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, Florida, United States. The city proper had a population of 307,573 at the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Florida behind Jacksonville, Florida, Jacksonville ...

. Introduced in 2010 and organized by Alex Jebailey, the event is known for its strong ties to the

fighting game community Combat ( French for ''fight'') is a purposeful violent conflict between multiple combatants with the intent to harm the opposition. Combat may be armed (using weapons) or unarmed ( not using weapons). Combat is resorted to either as a method of ...

. Fighting game players compete in a

wrestling ring A wrestling ring, also known as the squared circle, is the stage on which a professional wrestling match usually occurs. It is similarly constructed to a boxing ring and is traditionally square-shaped. In Japan, it is also common to see mixed mart ...

during the event's tournaments, and CEO has been a mainstay of 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 ...

since its establishment in 2014. An annual side-event titled CEOtaku was initiated in 2015.

Background

Described in 2016 as one of the biggest

events in the United States by ''Red Bull'', CEO has been running annually since 2010 and has grown exponentially every year. Organized by Alex Jebailey, the event is known primarily for emphasizing community spirit. Jebailey's goal as CEO is to ensure the entertainment of all its attendees. The event has an "infamous"

in which tournament players compete and those who reach the finals make

professional wrestling Professional wrestling, often shortened to either pro wrestling or wrestling,The term "wrestling" is most often widely used to specifically refer to modern scripted professional wrestling, though it is also used to refer to Real life, real- ...

style entrances. Jebailey himself has been interested in video game competition since 1993, when he won a local ''

Street Fighter II Turbo ''Street Fighter II: Hyper Fighting'', marketed as ''Turbo Street Fighter II Champion Edition'' in the United States and released as in Japan, is a 1992 fighting game developed and published by Capcom for Arcade video game, arcades. It is the t ...

'' tournament on the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System, commonly shortened to Super Nintendo, Super NES or SNES, is a Fourth generation of video game consoles, 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan, 1991 in No ...

. He has competed in various tournaments during the 1990s and 2000s, including ''

Mortal Kombat ''Mortal Kombat'' is an American media franchise centered on a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally developed by Midway Games in 1992. The original ''Mortal Kombat (1992 video game), Mortal Kombat'' arcade game spawned Lis ...

'' and ''

Killer Instinct ''Killer Instinct'' is a series of fighting game, fighting video games originally created by Rare (company), Rare and published by Midway Games, Midway, Nintendo, and Microsoft Studios, Xbox Game Studios. The original Killer Instinct (1994 vide ...

'' competitions, as well as professional

trading card game A collectible card game (CCG), also called a trading card game (TCG) among other names, is a type of card game that mixes strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards. The genre was introduced with '' Magic: The Gathering'' in ...

contests. Here, he got the inspiration and experience to become a tournament organizer. Jebailey joined

Iron Galaxy Iron Galaxy Studios, LLC is an American video game developer studio based in Chicago, Illinois, with additional studios in Orlando, Florida, and Nashville, Tennessee. Iron Galaxy often collaborates with publishers and developers to provide "tec ...

in 2014.

History

2010–2013

In 2010, there was a fighting game event that was "supposed to" happen in Orlando, but things did not come together until Alex Jebailey was assigned as Tournament Organizer three weeks prior to when the event was planned. He named the event Community Effort Orlando, managed the tournament brackets on his own, and ran the stream with one colleague. Florida was not known for having an active fighting game community, though the 2010 open tournament totaled 300 players. CEO was held on June 10–12 in 2011. ''

Orlando Business Journal American City Business Journals, Inc. (ACBJ) is an American newspaper publisher based in Charlotte, North Carolina. ACBJ publishes ''The Business Journals'', which contains local business news for 44 markets in the United States with each market ...

'' reported in 2012 that CEO was growing steadily, having reached 1,600 attendees and 30,000 online viewers. Jebailey stated that his presence on social media such as

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

and

Facebook Facebook is a social media and social networking service owned by the American technology conglomerate Meta Platforms, Meta. Created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with four other Harvard College students and roommates, Eduardo Saverin, Andre ...

has allowed the event to grow in size. At this point, CEO was part of the " Road to Evo" series of major ranking events. CEO 2013 had over 1,800 attendees. The day after winning a CEO tournament, '' Marvel vs. Capcom 3'' player Noel Brown was arrested for "domestic violence battery" after allegedly attacking his ex-girlfriend and a fellow tournament player.

2014

CEO was held on June 27–29 in 2014 and was one of the ten Premier Events of the first annual

, meaning that high-ranking players of the ''

Ultra 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 video game, a ...

'' tournament at CEO could qualify for the 2014 Capcom Cup. CEO 2014 was also sponsored by One Frame Link, and Jebailey sold CEO-themed T-shirts based on the various games played during the event in order to crowdfund the prize pool of each tournament.

2015

CEO, taking place on June 26–28, was one of the sixteen Capcom Pro Tour events of the 2015 season, and the winner of its ''Ultra Street Fighter IV'' tournament automatically qualified for the 2015 Capcom Cup. Capcom revealed the first playable demo of ''

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'' ...

'' at CEO 2015. Held at the Wyndham Orlando Resort, CEO 2015 brought in over 3,000 attendees. At the CEO 2015 ''Ultra Street Fighter IV'' tournament, well-known players such as Infiltration,

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 '' ...

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 ...

, and

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 ...

were all eliminated before reaching the finals. The tournament was won by

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 ...

, who beat 801 Strider in the winner's bracket semi-final and defeated

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 ...

in the Grand Final. As a response to the consistent success of ''

Super Smash Bros. is a series of platform fighting video games published by Nintendo. Created by Masahiro Sakurai, the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series is a crossover featuring many characters from other video game series created by Nintendo and other develope ...

''-player

ZeRo 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. Adding (or subtracting) 0 to any number leaves that number unchanged; in mathematical terminology, 0 is the additive identity of the integers, rational numbers, real numbers, and compl ...

throughout the 2015 season, Jebailey gave out a prize to whoever could knock him out of the CEO 2015 tournament. As a response, ''

Smashboards Smashboards (originally known as Smash World Forums) is an online forum centered on games from the ''Super Smash Bros.'' series, founded in 2002. The community hosts discussions of techniques, news, and professional competition of the ''Super Smas ...

'' owner Chris "AlphaZealot" Brown added more money to the "bounty". Regardless, ZeRo won the tournament, defeating Nairo in the Grand Final.

2016

CEO 2016 took place two weeks after the

Orlando nightclub shooting On , 2016, 29-year-old Omar Mateen shot and killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States before Orlando Police officers fatally shot him after a three-hour standoff. I ...

. Jebailey quickly responded to people's worries regarding personal safety on social media that he would redouble the event's security. In an interview with ''Red Bull'', Jebailey stated that "We understand bad things happen in the world, but if I can spend a weekend with my community and get away from it... I can’t imagine anything better." CEO 2016, again a Capcom Pro Tour Premier Event, featured ten major fighting game tournaments, including ''Ultra Street Fighter IV'' side-to-side with ''Street Fighter V''. Jebailey stated in an interview that there was a large amount of interest in the older game within the Florida fighting game community. ''Orlando Business Journal'' reported that the event had over 4,000 attendees from 46 states and more than 25 countries. Besides major tournaments of new games such as ''

Pokkén Tournament is a 2015 Fighting game, fighting video game developed by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The game combines gameplay elements from Bandai Namco's ''Tekken'' series and other fighting games, such as 3D and 2D movement, with characters from the ''Poké ...

'', ''

The King of Fighters XIV is a 2016 fighting game developed by KOF Studio and published by SNK. It is the fourteenth main installment in the ''The King of Fighters'' series. It is the first game in the series to be rendered entirely in 3D, although gameplay is restri ...

'', and ''

Guilty Gear Xrd is a fighting video game sub-series by Arc System Works and part of the ''Guilty Gear'' series. ''Guilty Gear Xrd'' was developed using Unreal Engine 3, with cel-shaded graphics in place of the series traditional hand drawn sprites. Following ...

'', the event included a "free-to-play"

video game arcade An amusement arcade, also known as a video arcade, amusements, arcade, or penny arcade (an older term), is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchan ...

and a guest appearance of professional wrestlers

Xavier Woods Austin Watson (born September 4, 1986) is an American professional wrestler and YouTuber. He is signed to WWE, where he performs on the Raw brand under the ring name Xavier Woods and is part of The New Day and is one-half of the current World ...

and

Kenny Omega Tyson Smith (born October 16, 1983), better known by the ring name , is a Canadian-born professional wrestler. He is signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW), where he is the current AEW International Champion in his first reign. He also works as an ...

2017

Jebailey announced in July 2016 that CEO 2017 would move away from its traditional late-June date in order for the event to be held in a new venue. The event may even move to a different city. Later, CEO 2017 was announced to be held again in the Wyndham Resort in Orlando from June 16 to 18. The event featured tournaments for ''Street Fighter V'', ''

Tekken 7 is a 2015 fighting game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is the seventh main and ninth overall installment in the ''Tekken'' series, and is the first in that series to be released for PC. ''Tekken 7'' was released to Am ...

'', '' Super Smash Bros. Melee'', ''

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and , both commonly referred to together as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'', are 2014 crossover fighting games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U video game cons ...

'', ''

Injustice 2 ''Injustice 2'' is a 2017 fighting video game. It is the sequel to 2013's '' Injustice: Gods Among Us'' and the second installment in the ''Injustice'' series which is based on the DC Universe. It is developed by NetherRealm Studios and publish ...

'', ''Pokkén Tournament'', ''

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a 2011 crossover fighting game developed by Capcom in collaboration with Eighting. It is an updated version of '' Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds''. The game features characters from both Capcom's video game franchises and comic book ...

'', ''

'', ''The King of Fighters XIV'', ''Guilty Gear Xrd'', and '' BlazBlue: Central Fiction''.

Microsoft Studios Xbox Game Studios (previously known as Microsoft Studios, Microsoft Game Studios, and Microsoft Games) is an American video game publisher based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, spun out from an internal Games Group, fo ...

announced at CEO 2017 that the 2013 version of ''Killer Instinct'' would be released on the Steam platform.

2020–present

CEO 2020 was postponed from June until December due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Later, on October 1, 2020, the official CEO website announced that CEO 2020 would be canceled, and that its return was scheduled to be on June 25–27, 2021. CEO 2022 was held from June 24–26.

Other events

Wrestling events

In 2018, it was announced that

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Puroresu, Japanese professional-wrestling Professional wrestling promotion, promotion founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, and based in Nakano, Tokyo. It is currently majority owned by card-game company Bushiroad, with TV As ...

would host an event at the tournament, which was held Saturday night following the end of the day's matches. The event was named CEO×NJPW: When Worlds Collide. Jebailey made his wrestling debut at the event and defeated

Michael Nakazawa , better known by the ring name , is a Japanese professional wrestler and judoka signed to All Elite Wrestling (AEW). Early life Nakazawa attended Tokai University before studying abroad in the United States where he obtained an MSc Sports Scien ...

. In 2019, new promotion

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida. It is owned and operated by Shahid Khan, Shahid and Tony Khan, with the latter serving as President (corporate title), president an ...

partnered with CEO to produce Fyter Fest. Jebailey once again wrestled Nakazawa, this time under hardcore stipulations, but failed to win the match.

CEOtaku

Jebailey set up a side event called CEOtaku in October 2015. A

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of CEO and

otaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, such as anime, manga, video games, computers or other highly enthusiastic hobbies. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. ...

, the event focused specifically on Japanese 2D fighting games, often referred to as "anime fighters". Such games have historically not gotten as much attention among the fighting game community. Jebailey got the idea of starting CEOtaku when he noticed that Florida features many

anime convention An anime and manga convention (often called just anime convention) is a fan convention with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Anime conventions are commonly multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college cam ...

s throughout any given year, and was inspired when he saw a side-event at Evo 2015 dubbed "ANIMEvo". CEOtaku has since become an annual event as well.

Dreamland

In April 2017, Jebailey hosted CEO Dreamland, a ''Super Smash Bros.''-focused event featuring tournaments for each game in the series. The event attracted nearly 1,100 attendees, but failed to return its production cost. Jebailey blamed the lack of attendees in comparison to his annual CEO events on poor scheduling, as Dreamland took place on

Easter Easter, also called Pascha ( Aramaic: פַּסְחָא , ''paskha''; Greek: πάσχα, ''páskha'') or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in t ...

weekend and coincided with the annual

Star Wars Celebration ''Star Wars'' Celebration is a large fan Convention (meeting), convention held to celebrate the ''Star Wars'' franchise. The event is usually held every one to three years in varying locations around the world, and commonly features a host of ...

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort is an destination resort, entertainment resort complex located about southwest of Orlando, Florida, United States. Opened on October 1, 1971, the resort is operated by Disney Experiences, a division of the Wa ...

. Following its near $20,000 USD loss, Dreamland was originally thought to be unlikely to return, however on April 18, 2019, Jebailey confirmed that CEO Dreamland would return. CEO Dreamland 2020 was held at the Wyndham Hotel in Orlando. The tournament was won by Samsora, who donated a fraction of his earnings back to CEO after winning.

DDR Storm

Since 2016, CEO has also been the home of the Florida-based ''

Dance Dance Revolution (''DDR'') is a music video game series produced by Konami. Introduced in Japan in 1998 as part of the Bemani series, and released in North America and Europe in 1999, ''Dance Dance Revolution'' is the pioneering series of the rhythm and dance ...

'' tournament, ''DDR STORM''. Once a small side event to the larger fighting game tournaments, STORM has grown alongside the competitive DDR scene with each passing year, and is now regarded as one of the most prestigious DDR tournaments in the world. 2018's tournament was notable for having (at the time) the most entries for an in-person DDR tournament in history. STORM tournaments have also been held for related rhythm games '' Pump It Up'' and '' In the Groove''.

List of Events

CEO Fighting Game Championships

CEO Winterfest

CEOtaku

CEO Dreamland

References

{{Fighting game community Fighting game tournaments 2010 establishments in Florida Recurring events established in 2010 Annual events in Florida Events in Orlando, Florida Super Smash Bros. tournaments June