The Canada Cup is an annual Canadian

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 founded and organized by Lap Chi Duong. The event was launched as the Calgary Cup in 2009 and was initially held in

Calgary, Alberta Calgary () is a major city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a Metropolitan area, metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the List of ...

, but the tournament moved to

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

shortly after, returning to Calgary every few years. The Canada Cup is a major ''

Street Fighter is a Media mix, Japanese media franchise centered on a series of fighting games developed and published by Capcom. Street Fighter 1, The first game in the series was released in 1987, followed by List of Street Fighter video games, six other ma ...

'' tournament, generally being the final event in the annual

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 ...

Description

Property manager and

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly coo ...

shop owner Lap Chi Duong organizes the Canada Cup fighting game event once a year. The ''

'' tournament held at the Canada Cup has been a Premier Event of the

since 2015. David "Atari" Bibona noted in 2016 that the Canada Cup is the biggest gathering of high-level ''

Super Street Fighter II Turbo ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'', released in Japan as is a 1994 fighting game developed and published by Capcom for arcades. It is the fifth installment in the '' Street Fighter II'' sub-series of ''Street Fighter'' games, following '' ...

'' players, in part due to its international focus, allowing American players to compete with Japanese competitors, where ''Super Street Fighter II Turbo'' has a more active scene. ''

Motherboard A motherboard, also called a mainboard, a system board, a logic board, and informally a mobo (see #Nomenclature, "Nomenclature" section), is the main printed circuit board (PCB) in general-purpose computers and other expandable systems. It ho ...

'' described the Canada Cup in 2016 as the "largest and most prestigious fighting game tournament in the country."

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 ...

described the Canada Cup as one of his favorite tournaments to attend.

History

The Canada Cup started in 2009 as the Calgary Cup, held in

Calgary Calgary () is a major city in the Canadian province of Alberta. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806 making it the third-largest city and fifth-largest metropolitan area in C ...

rather than Toronto. The tournament was rebranded as the Canada Cup the following year as top ''Street Fighter'' players like

and

Justin Wong Justin Wong (born November 15, 1985), occasionally shortened to Jwong, is an American professional fighting game player residing in Canada. Wong has won more EVO titles than anyone else with nine tournaments won: seven for '' Marvel vs. Capcom ...

flew in to compete in the competition. In 2011, Duong decided to charge

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

viewers of the tournaments $8.95

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 ...

for commercial-free, high-definition

livestreams Livestreaming, live-streaming, or live streaming is the streaming of video or audio in real time or near real time. While often referred to simply as ''streaming'', the real-time nature of livestreaming differentiates it from other non- live ...

, which became a running gag among 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 ...

. Duong moved the tournament to Toronto in 2015, though he had difficulty convincing sponsors and finding support. Duong stated in an interview with ''Motherboard'' that he had contacted 200 unique sponsors at the time, and only one responded positively:

Mad Catz Mad Catz is an American manufacturing gaming brand of interactive entertainment and PC products, currently produced by Hong Kong–based company Mad Catz Global Limited. It was formerly produced by the original Chinese Mad Catz company until its ...

. The Cup moved back to Calgary for one year in 2014, which Duong noted as the first year it did not operate at a loss.

2015

In 2015, the Canada Cup became the final Premier Event of the Capcom Pro Tour season. The winner of its ''

Super Street Fighter IV is a 2.5D fighting game produced by Capcom. It is an updated version of '' Street Fighter IV'' and has been said to mark the definitive end of the ''Street Fighter IV'' series. Having been deemed too large an update to be deployed as DLC, the g ...

'' tournament automatically qualified for the 2015 Capcom Cup. 13 of the top 23 players in the Capcom Pro Tour rankings competed in the competition, and ''

The Daily Dot ''The Daily Dot'' is a digital media company covering the culture of the Internet and the World Wide Web. It was founded by Nicholas White in 2011, and is headquartered in Austin, Texas. The site, conceived as the Internet's "hometown newsp ...

'' described the Canada Cup as the "deepest tournaments of the season". The tournament was eventually won 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 '' ...

, 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 ...

in the finale by playing Akuma with a solid ground game.

2016

Canada Cup 2016 hosted 14 tournaments. Duong invited high-level ''

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 ...

'' players Armada,

Hungrybox Juan Manuel DeBiedma (; born June 21, 1993), better known by his alias Hungrybox, is an Argentine–American professional '' Super Smash Bros.'' player, streamer, tournament organizer and commentator. Recognized as one of the greatest and most ...

, and

Mang0 Joseph Manuel Marquez, (born December 10, 1991) known by his gamertag Mango (stylized MaNg0 or Mang0), is an American professional '' Super Smash Bros. Melee'' player and streamer from Norwalk, California. Known for his aggressive, high-risk pla ...

through a

publicity stunt In marketing, a publicity stunt is a planned event designed to attract the public's attention to the event's organizers or their cause. Publicity stunts can be professionally organized, or set up by amateurs. Such events are frequently utiliz ...

, donating a large amount of money to their Twitch streams in order to contact them. The Canada Cup was again the final ''Street Fighter'' tournament of the Capcom Pro Tour, and became the first Premier Event in two years to have an American champion: Du "NuckleDu" Dang.

2017

Canada Cup was the final ''Street Fighter'' tournament of the 2017 Capcom Pro Tour as well, besides the regional finals. The tournament was attended by players such as

Punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

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 ...

, Yukadon and Problem X. The Canada Cup 2017 ''Street Fighter'' tournament was won by Dogura. The event also featured high-level tournaments for ''

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'', and ''

Super Smash Bros. 4 and , both commonly referred to together as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'', are 2014 List of crossovers in video games, crossover fighting games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Ninten ...

''. A controversy was sparked when competitor Jose Aldape participated in the '' Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite'' tournament under two separate names. Aldape was initially eliminated from the tournament after losing during the "Battle for the Stones" qualifying round, but he reinserted himself in the competition the next day after a friend offered him her spot. Canada Cup organizers decided to replay the pool after a large portion of it had already been completed, and at least one player saw his accomplishments in the pool erased due to the mix-up.

2018

Canada Cup held in October 2018 was part of the ''Street Fighter'' 30th Anniversary Collection Tournament Series, featuring a '' Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike'' tournament. The event was held at the

Enthusiast Gaming Enthusiast Gaming Holdings Inc. is a Canadian digital media company specializing in video game journalism. Founded in 2014 by entrepreneur Menashe Kestenbaum, the company owned the websites ''Destructoid'' and ''Escapist Magazine'' from 2014 to ...

Live Expo (EGLX) in Toronto. Canada Cup organizers said they were experiencing "major growing pains", and Chi Duong stated that "working in a convention space for the first year, it became quickly obvious that the trade off for a bigger production is losing the leniency you enjoy in a hotel conference setting." One competitor found himself unexpectedly completely disqualified for the ''Ultra Street Fighter IV'' tournament for arriving ten minutes late, and the scheduled live broadcast of the ''

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'' ...

'' finals was abandoned due to delays and scheduling issues.

2019

The Canada Cup was again the final Capcom Pro Tour event in 2019, being held on November 1–3. The event returned to Calgary for the first time in four years, being held in the Deerfoot Inn. For the tenth anniversary of the tournament, Canada Cup 2019 had a $50,000

prize pool. Actor

Cary Tagawa Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa (; born September 27, 1950) is a Japanese-American actor and producer. Often cast as villains, he is known for his film roles in: ''The Last Emperor'' (1987), the James Bond film ''Licence to Kill'' (1989), ''Showdown in Lit ...

and voice actors

Brian Drummond Brian Drummond (born August 10, 1969) is a Canadian voice actor. He formerly served on the board of directors for the New Westminster-based Urban Academy along with his wife, Laura Drummond, also a voice artist. Usually working in Vancouver, h ...

and

Peter Kelamis Peter Kelamis is an Australian actor and stand-up comedian. He is best known for voice roles including Goku in Ocean's English dub of the animated series ''Dragon Ball Z'' (succeeding Ian James Corlett and preceding Kirby Morrow), Rolf from ''E ...

were present at the event.

References

{{Fighting game community Fighting game tournaments 2009 establishments in Ontario Organized events in Toronto Esports in Canada