Capcom Cup 2017 was a ''

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

video game Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, controller, keyboard, or motion sensing device to generate visual feedback. This fee ...

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 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 '' ...

. 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 comp ...

. 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 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 ...

. 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. Typically deployed in symmetric pairs, an individual bracket may be identified as a 'left' or 'r ...

, foregoing the

group tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concent ...

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 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 ...

, 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 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 by Capcom. Momochi won the Capcom Cup 2014 championship, as well as winning the EVO 2015 title for ''U ...

. Veteran Japanese player

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 Fig ...

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 Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

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 s ...

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

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

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

Hurricane Maria Hurricane Maria was a deadly Saffir–Simpson scale#Category 5, Category 5 Tropical cyclone, hurricane that devastated the northeastern Caribbean in September 2017, particularly Dominica, Saint Croix, and Puerto Rico. It is regarded as the wo ...

. 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. Xian is currently part of Team Razer. He was the winner of ''Ultra Street Fighter IV'' at DreamHack Winter 2015. At Capcom Cup 2 ...

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 (; ), 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, i ...

, 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 ( egy, mnj.t, ar, منات) was a type of artefact closely associated with the goddess Hathor. Operation The menat was held in the hand by its counterpoise and used as a 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 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) ...

, 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 better known by this nickname Kazunoko (かずのこ), is a Japanese fighting games player known for playing Holy Order Sol in ''Guilty Gear XX Accent Core Plus R'', Yun in ''Street Fighter IV'', Cammy in ''Street Fighter V'', Yamcha in ''Dr ...

, 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), 1964 Japanese film. * ''Ken'' (magazine), a large-format political magazine. * Ken Masters, a main character in ...

, and

Cammy , also referred to by her codename , is a fictional character in the ''Street Fighter'' fighting game series. She debuted in 1993 as one of the four new characters in ''Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers''. She has also been featured in ...

did not appear at all in the Top 32, 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 chara ...

R. Mika , known as and more commonly as , is a fictional character and professional wrestling, professional wrestler from Capcom's ''Street Fighter (series), Street Fighter'' fighting game series. She was introduced in the 1998 game ''Street Fighter Al ...

, 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 M. Bison, also known as the Dictator (for international tournaments), is a fictional character created by Capcom. First introduced in '' Street Fighter II: The World Warrior'', he is a recurring character in the ''Street Fighter'' series of figh ...

and

Rashid Rashid or Rachid ( ar, راشد ) and Rasheed ( ar, رشيد ), 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 Plac ...

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

was particularly notable. ''

Shack News ''Shacknews'' (originally Quakeholio, then ShugaShack) is a website that hosts news, features, editorial content and forums relating to computer games and console games. It is currently owned by a company called Gamerhub Content Network. Gamerh ...

'' 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 of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...

'' 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: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ 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 ...

) 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 published by Capcom, who also co-developed the game with Dimps. It was the first original main entry in the series since '' Street Fighter III'' in 1997, a hiatus of eleven years. The coin-operated arcade game version wa ...

'' 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 A cherry blossom, also known as Japanese cherry or sakura, is a flower of many trees of Prunus, genus ''Prunus'' or Prunus subg. Cerasus, ''Prunus'' subg. ''Cerasus''. They are common species in East Asia, including China, Korea and especia ...

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 also known by his birth name Jimmy (ジミー Jimī) is a fictional character in Capcom's ''Street Fighter'' fighting game series. He first appeared in the 1991 video game ''Street Fighter II'' as one of eight playable characters, and was subsequ ...

, Sagat, and

Cody Cody may refer to: People *Cody (given name) *Cody (surname) * Cody (wrestler), a ring name of Cody Runnels Places Canada *Cody, British Columbia United States * Cody, Florida *Cody (Duluth), Minnesota *Cody, Missouri *Cody, Nebraska *Cody, Wyo ...

. 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