The Capcom Cup 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- ...

tournament specifically focused on the ''

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 ...

'' series. The event's first incarnation was in 2013 which featured '' Super Street Fighter IV: Arcade Edition'' version 2012, '' Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3'', and '' Street Fighter X Tekken version 2013'' as the three main games each with 8 qualifiers. In 2014, Capcom Cup was an

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 ...

exclusive tournament with 16 qualifiers. The 2015 Capcom Cup was doubled to a 32-man format and was later increased to a 48-man format beginning with Capcom Cup IX in 2022–23. The series of qualifying events for the tournament are known as 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 ...

and include many of the largest, most prestigious pre-existing fighting game tournaments such as

Evolution Championship Series The Evolution Championship Series, commonly known as Evo, is an American annual esports event that focuses exclusively on fighting games. The tournaments are completely Open (sport), open and use the Double-elimination tournament, double elimina ...

and

DreamHack DreamHack is a Swedish ESL Gaming brand specializing in esports tournaments and other gaming conventions; at its root, a massive LAN party and computer festival, recognized by ''Guiness World Records'' and Twin Galaxies as being the world's l ...

History

2010s

2013

In 2013, Capcom started the Capcom Cup right after EVO 2013, with Ho "Xian" Kun Xian receiving a special invitation. Capcom released qualifier dates to determine the seven remaining qualifiers. Capcom created a poll to decide which players would make it into the '' Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3'' tournament, with Nemo, Justin Wong, KaneBlueRiver, IFC Yipes, Abegen, NYChrisG, Filipino Champ, and MarlinPie being voted in. For their Street Fighter X Tekken tournament, Capcom also gave special invites to Infiltration, Justin Wong, Alex Valle, and NuckleDu. The other four players were determined by two respective

PlayStation Network PlayStation Network (PSN) is a digital media entertainment service provided by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Launched in November 2006, PSN was originally conceived for the PlayStation video game consoles, but soon extended to encompass smartp ...

and

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly known and commonly referred to as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft Gaming for the Xbox brand. It was first made available to the origina ...

tournaments. Capcom Cup 2013 was hosted at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport in

Burlingame, California Burlingame () is a city in San Mateo County, California, United States. It is located on the San Francisco Peninsula and has a significant shoreline on San Francisco Bay. The city is named after diplomat Anson Burlingame and is known for its ...

on December 14, 2013. There was some controversy regarding the EVO 2013 Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 champion Job "Flocker" Figueroa being cut from the player lineup. In response, Capcom set up a First-To-Five exhibition match between EVO Champ Flocker, and the Capcom Cup 2013 champion. The victor of the Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 tournament, NYChrisG faced off against Flocker and defeated him. There was also two exhibition matches for an early build of Ultra Street Fighter IV; the first being Eduardo "PR Balrog" Perez-Frangie against Alex Valle, and the second being Infiltration vs. Filipino Champ.

2014

In 2014, Twitch and

Capcom is a Japanese video game company. It has created a number of critically acclaimed and List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises, with its most commercially successful being ''Resident Evil'', ''Monster ...

partnered up to create an ''

'' circuit known as the Capcom Pro Tour. Ten players would automatically qualify into the tournament and the other six would garner points. The Capcom Pro Tour featured a point system divided into four tiers. Tier 3 consists of six Online Tournaments, which are the lowest earning tournaments in the circuit. Tier 2 is for Ranking Tournaments, which are international tournaments that are mainly composed of players in a certain region. Tier 1 consists of nine Premier Tournaments. A player would automatically qualify upon winning the tournament or being the highest player who hasn't qualified. Evolution Tier consists of the

, which grants the player four times the points of a Premier Tournament and also gives the winner an automatic spot in the Capcom Cup. Capcom has removed Tier 3 (Online Tournaments) from the 2015 Capcom Pro Tour circuit. Capcom Cup 2014 was the conclusion of the Capcom Pro Tour in 2014. Capcom Cup 2014 was held at

The Warfield The Warfield Theatre, colloquially called The Warfield, is a 2,300-seat music venue located in the Theatre District in downtown San Francisco, California, United States. It was built as a vaudeville theater and opened as the '' Loews Warfield' ...

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

on December 13, 2014. One notable appearance in the Capcom Cup was a Brazilian player named Eric "ChuChu" Moreira Silva, who qualified by garnering majority of his points from the online tournaments. Another notable moment was Momochi's dominant performance; taking a set off of Snake Eyez, losing a set to Ryan Hart, then completely dominated everyone in the tournament. There were also two exhibition matches for the Ultra Street Fighter IV Omega Mode, a mode which changes how every character plays. The main exhibition was Alex Valle vs. Ryan "Filipino Champ" Ramirez, and the secondary exhibition was Kelvin Jeon going up against Hooman "Hoodaman" Ghahremani. Capcom also showed the first ever match of their upcoming game ''

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'' ...

'' with Twitch's Mike Ross using Ryu going up against

's Peter "Combofiend" Rosas using

Chun-Li Chun-Li (; Japanese: , Hepburn: ) is a character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' video game series. She first appeared in '' Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'' in 1991 and is the first female playable character to appear in a fighting game t ...

2015

Capcom Cup 2015 was announced by Yoshinori Ono at Capcom Cup 2014. The tournament will use the same ruleset as the previous year. Capcom Pro Tour 2015 has a total pot bonus of $500,000 thanks to a partnership between

Sony Computer Entertainment Sony Interactive Entertainment LLC (SIE) is an American video game and digital entertainment company that is a major subsidiary of Japanese conglomerate Sony, Sony Group Corporation. It primarily operates the PlayStation brand of video game co ...

and

. The tournament has also been doubled from 16 qualifiers to 32. One of the spots was reserved for 2014's Capcom Cup champion, Yusuke Momochi. In May, Capcom announced a new rule for the Capcom Pro Tour Premier events, stating that if the Top 4 players in a Capcom Pro Tour premier event have all qualified, Capcom will remove the automatic qualifying spot and add a new qualifying slot to the CPT Leaderboards. Capcom Cup 2015 was held December 6 at

Moscone Center The George R. Moscone Convention Center (), popularly known as the Moscone Center, is the largest convention and exhibition complex in San Francisco, California, United States. The complex consists of three main halls spread out across three bl ...

San Francisco, California San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, coinciding with 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 ...

conference.

2016

Capcom Cup 2016 is to be held in December 2016. 32 players will qualify for the tournament by winning one of the eleven Capcom Pro Tour Global Premier Events, Evo 2016, one of the four regional events, or by scoring high on the Points Leaderboards. ''

'' was released shortly before the start of the 2016 Capcom Pro Tour and has replaced ''

'' during this season. Capcom Cup 2016 was held over December 2 and 3 of that year. The top 32 to top 8 portion of the tournament was held on December 2 at the esports Arena in

Santa Ana, California Santa Ana (Spanish language, Spanish for ) is a city in and the county seat of Orange County, California, United States. Located in the Greater Los Angeles region of Southern California, the city's population was 310,227 at the 2020 census. As ...

, while the top 8 portion was held on December 3 at that year's

at the

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 ...

Anaheim Anaheim ( ) is a city in northern Orange County, California, United States, part of the Greater Los Angeles area. As of the 2020 census, the city had a population of 346,824, making it the most populous city in Orange County, the tenth-most ...

, California. The tournament was eventually won by NuckleDu, defeating Ricki Ortiz in the finale.

2017

Capcom moved away from auto-qualification spots in

Capcom Pro Tour 2017 The 2017 Capcom Pro Tour was the fourth edition of the Capcom Pro Tour, an annual season of ''Street Fighter V'' tournaments that are officially sponsored by Capcom. The 2017 Capcom Pro Tour followed several months after the "Season 2" update of '' ...

. This was done to simplify the Pro Tour, as confusion arose around the Global and Regional Leaderboards throughout the 2016 season. Capcom's Neidel "Haunts" Crisan also noted in November 2016 that CPT 2017 may host fewer events than the 2016 season. Saúl Antonio Mena "MenaRD" from the Dominican Republic, with only 17 years old, won the Capcom Cup 2017. He won 3-1 to Tokido from Japan. In his road to confront Tokido, he beat famous pro-player as Daigo The Beast, Nemo, Itazan and the previous Capcom Cup winner Xian.

2018

Capcom Cup 2018 was held in the Esports Arena in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

on December 14–16. The tournament began with a "Last Chance Qualifier" event, which filled the final spot of the 32-person Capcom Cup bracket. The tournament's first prize was set to $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 ...

. Capcom Cup 2018 was won by Kanamori "Gachikun" Tsunehiro, defeating Hiromiki "Itabashi Zangief" Kumada in the grand finals. No. 1 seed and Evo 2017 champion Taniguchi "Tokido" Hajime dropped out early during the tournament, alongside various other high-seeded players.

2019

Capcom Cup 2019 was held at The Novo in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

, California from December 13–15, 2019. Similar to the 2018 edition, the event began with a Last Chance Qualifier before going into tournament proper. The tournament was won by Derek "iDom" Ruffin after defeating Victor "Punk" Woodley in the grand finals.

2020s

COVID-19 suspension

The

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

brought a suspension to all offline events for the Capcom Pro Tours of 2020 and 2021. All events during both seasons were held online and their respective Capcom Cups were cancelled and replaced by an online Season Final tournament in both seasons.

Capcom Cup IX (2022–23)

After over three years, the Capcom Cup made its return with Capcom Cup IX, the culmination of the Capcom Pro Tour 2022. The tournament took place at

Avalon Hollywood Avalon (or Avalon Hollywood) is a historic nightclub in Hollywood, California, located near the intersection of Hollywood and Vine, at 1735 N. Vine Street. It has previously been known as The Hollywood Playhouse, The WPA Federal Theatre, El Ca ...

in Los Angeles from February 14–19, 2023. The first prize for this tournament was decreased to $120,000. The tournament was won by Saul Leonardo "MenaRD" Mena II.

Capcom Cup X (2023–24)

The Capcom Cup X, much like ''IX'', was held at Avalon Hollywood from February 21–25, 2024 as the culmination of the Capcom Pro Tour 2023. It was the first edition to be played in

Street Fighter 6 ''Street Fighter 6'' is a 2023 fighting game developed and published by Capcom. It is the seventh main entry in the ''Street Fighter'' franchise, following ''Street Fighter V'' (2016), and was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows ...

and featured a prize pool worth over $2,000,000. It was preceded by the Last Chance Qualifier to fill in the final spot of the 48-person bracket. Capcom Cup X was won by Wang "UMA" Yuan-hao, who won the first prize of $1,000,000, the largest ever for a fighting game tournament.

Capcom Cup 11 (2024–25)

Capcom Cup 11 will be held sometime in 2025 and will take place at the

Ryōgoku Kokugikan , also known as Ryōgoku Sumo Hall or Kokugikan Arena, is the name bestowed to two different indoor sporting arenas located in Tokyo. The first ''Ryōgoku Kokugikan'' opened its doors in 1909 and was located on the premises of the Ekōin temple i ...

Tokyo Tokyo, officially the Tokyo Metropolis, is the capital of Japan, capital and List of cities in Japan, most populous city in Japan. With a population of over 14 million in the city proper in 2023, it is List of largest cities, one of the most ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

. The first prize is set to remain at $1,000,000.

References

External links

Capcom Cup websiteCapcom Pro Tour websiteCapcom Fighters Twitch Channel
{{Esports competitions Recurring events established in 2013 2013 establishments in California Events in the San Francisco Bay Area Events in Los Angeles Events in Tokyo