Capcom Cup 2014 was an ''

Ultra 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 was ...

'' tournament held at The Warfield in

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 ...

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

on December 13, 2014. 16 players qualified for the tournament by winning at events at the first Capcom Pro Tour, co-sponsored by Twitch. The tournament was won by Yusuke Momochi, defeating

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 Cup ...

in the finale and winning $30,000 USD.

Capcom Pro Tour

In March 2014,

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

partnered with

livestreaming Livestreaming is streaming media simultaneously recorded and broadcast in real-time over the internet. It is often referred to simply as streaming. Non-live media such as video-on-demand, vlogs, and YouTube videos are technically streamed, but no ...

video platform Twitch to create a year-long fighting game league, titled the Capcom Pro Tour. The Tour featured a large number of tournaments, among which ten "Premier Events". Winners of the Premier Events would automatically qualify for the Capcom Cup in December, and six more players were selected based on their ranking in Capcom-sponsored tournaments. During early tournaments in the Capcom pro Tour, the 2012 version of '' Super Street Fighter IV Arcade Edition'' was played. Tournaments transitioned into ''

'' as it became available in June. The ''Street Fighter'' tournament held at the Pro Tour Premier Events (except for Evo 2014) were all streamed through the "Capcom Fighters" Twitch channel. Capcom also brought smaller tournaments to well-known video game conventions such as E3 and

PAX East PAX (originally known as Penny Arcade Expo) is a series of gaming culture festivals involving tabletop, arcade, and video gaming. PAX is held annually in Seattle, Boston and Philadelphia in the United States; and Melbourne in Australia. PAX was ...

. In April, online gaming platform Virgin Gaming (now

WorldGaming WorldGaming Network (WGN), formerly Virgin Gaming, is an online video gaming platform that hosts head-to-head matches, tournaments and ladders for consoles and PC gamers. WorldGaming has had over 3 million gamers register for its platform worldw ...

) partnered with Capcom and Twitch in order to hold regional online tournaments. In total, 716 players scored points in the ranking.

Tournament background

The Capcom Cup was held on December 13, 2014, in The Warfield in San Francisco, a music venue usually reserved for major musical acts. Heidi Kemps of ''

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 the venue as "close-knit and communal", though noted that The Warfield didn't afford much space for crowd control. The Capcom Cup offered live commentary not only through its online livestreams, as the commentary of James Chen and David "UltraDavid" Graham was also broadcast among the crowd. The tournament had a prize pool of over $36,000 USD, $30,000 of which went to the winner.

Tournament summary

The Capcom Cup featured a double-elimination format and featured a roster of various high-level players.

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 ...

and

Snake Eyez Darryl S. Lewis, better known by his in-game name Snake Eyez, is an American professional fighting game player. He is considered one of the best Zangief players of ''Street Fighter IV'' and ''Street Fighter V''. Lewis was the highest seeded player ...

, among others, suffered two losses in a row at the start of the tournament, causing them to drop out early in the brackets. Due to ''Ultra Street Fighter IV''s large character roster featuring 44 options, character choice became an important metagame at the tournament. Competitors were allowed to mutually blind-pick characters in order to avoid counter-picks. When a player loses, they are allowed to change their character, while the winner has to stick with theirs. Quickly, players started to bring out unexpected characters in order to surprise their opponents. The Capcom Cup was won by Yusuke Momochi, defeating

in the finale. After winning a very close rematch against Ryan Hart in the loser's brackets of the tournament and defeating Luffy in the loser's bracket finals, Momochi was faced with Xian's

Poison Poison is a chemical substance that has a detrimental effect to life. The term is used in a wide range of scientific fields and industries, where it is often specifically defined. It may also be applied colloquially or figuratively, with a broa ...

in the Grand Finals. Momochi caused Xian to change his character to Gen after winning the first set 2–1. Momochi then managed to force a bracket-reset and eventually won the final set 3–1.

Results

References

{{Capcom Cup Capcom Cup 2014 in esports Esports competitions in the United States