Community Effort Orlando (often shortened to CEO) is an annual fighting game event held in Daytona Beach, Florida. Prior to 2018, CEO was held in Orlando, Florida. Introduced in 2010 and organized by Alex Jebailey, the event is known for its strong ties to the

fighting game community The fighting game community, often abbreviated to FGC, is a collective of video gamers who play fighting games such as '' Marvel vs. Capcom'', ''Mortal Kombat'', '' Soulcalibur'', ''Street Fighter'', ''Guilty Gear'', ''The King of Fighters'', '' ...

. Fighting game players compete in a

wrestling ring A wrestling ring is the stage on which a professional wrestling match usually occurs. It is similarly constructed to a boxing ring and is traditionally square-shaped. Configuration and construction The configuration and construction of the tra ...

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 Capc ...

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 "

WWE World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vari ...

style entrances". Jebailey himself has been interested in video game competition since 1993, when he won a local '' Street Fighter II Turbo'' tournament on the

Super Nintendo Entertainment System The Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), commonly shortened to Super NES or Super Nintendo, is a 16-bit home video game console developed by Nintendo that was released in 1990 in Japan and South Korea, 1991 in North America, 1992 in Eur ...

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

Killer Instinct ''Killer Instinct'' is a series of fighting video games originally created by Rare and published by Midway, Nintendo, and Microsoft Studios. The original ''Killer Instinct'' was released for arcades in 1994; the game was then released for ...

'' 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 strategy game, strategic deck building elements with features of trading cards, 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 founded on August 14, 2008, and based in Chicago, Illinois, with a second studio in Orlando, Florida that was opened in 2012 and a third studio in Austin, Texas. Iron Galaxy ...

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, Hemmings Motor News ...

'' 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 is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

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 is a crossover fighting video game developed by Capcom in collaboration with Eighting. The game features characters from both Capcom's video game franchises and comic book series published by Marvel Comics. It was released for the PlayStation ...

'' player Noel Brown was arrested for domestic abuse after attacking 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 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 ...

'' 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 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 ...

'' 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 Infiltration may refer to: Science, medicine, and engineering *Infiltration (hydrology), downward movement of water into soil *Infiltration (HVAC), a heating, ventilation, and air conditioning term for air leakage into buildings *Infiltration (me ...

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

, and

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 Fi ...

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

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 ' ...

, 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.''-player

ZeRo 0 (zero) is a number representing an empty quantity. In place-value notation such as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system, 0 also serves as a placeholder numerical digit, which works by multiplying digits to the left of 0 by the radix, usual ...

throughout the 2015 season, Jebailey gave out a prize to whoever could knock him out of the CEO 2015 tournament. As a response, '' Smashboards'' owner Chris "AlphaZealot" Brown added more money to the "bounty". Regardless, ZeRo won the tournament, defeating

Nairo Nairo is a given name. Nairo may refer to: *Nairo Quintana (born 1990), Colombian cyclist *Nairo (gamer) Nairoby Quezada, better known as Nairo, is an American streamer and retired professional '' Super Smash Bros.'' competitive player. He is w ...

in the Grand Final.

2016

CEO 2016 took place two weeks after the

Orlando nightclub shooting On , 2016, Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old man, killed 49 people and wounded 53 more in a mass shooting at Pulse, a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, United States. Orlando Police officers shot and killed him after a three-hour standoff. In a 9- ...

. 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 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 ''Pokémon'' franchise. I ...

'', ''

The King of Fighters XIV ''(KOF XIV)'' is a 2016 Japanese fighting game. Part of SNK's franchise '' The King of Fighters'' (''KOF'') series, with this installment being published by Atlus USA in North America and Deep Silver in Europe. After the 13th installment tha ...

'', 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 t ...

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

video game arcade An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as ...

and a guest appearance of professional wrestlers

Xavier Woods Austin Watson (born September 4, 1986) is an American professional wrestling, professional wrestler. He is currently signed to WWE, where he performs on the NXT (WWE brand), NXT WWE brand extension, brand under the ring name Xavier Woods. He app ...

and

Kenny Omega Tyson Smith (born October 16, 1983), better known by the ring name Kenny Omega, is a Canadian-born professional wrestler. Omega is an executive vice president of All Elite Wrestling (AEW), in which he also performs. Omega is a former one-ti ...

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 fighting game developed and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is the seventh main and ninth overall installment in the '' Tekken '' series. ''Tekken 7'' was released to arcades in March 2015. An updated arcade version, ''Tekken ...

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

Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and (colloquially and collectively referred to as ''Super Smash Bros. 4'' or ''Smash 4'') is a group of two 2014 crossover fighting video games developed by Bandai Namco Studios and Sora Ltd. and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo 3DS ...

'', ''

Injustice 2 ''Injustice 2'' is a 2017 fighting video game it is the sequel to 2013's '' Injustice: Gods Among Us'' and is the second installment in the ''Injustice'' franchise based upon the DC Universe. It is developed by NetherRealm Studios and publishe ...

'', ''Pokkén Tournament'', ''

Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 is a 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 se ...

'', ''

'', ''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 and part of the Microsoft Gaming division based in Redmond, Washington. It was established in March 2000, ...

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

2020

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.

Wrestling events

In 2018, it was announced that

New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) is a Japanese professional wrestling promotion based in Nakano, Tokyo. Founded on January 13, 1972, by Antonio Inoki, the promotion was sold to Yuke's, who later sold it to Bushiroad in 2012. TV Asahi and Amuse, Inc. own minority shares ...

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 were he obtained an MSc Sports Scienc ...

. In 2019, new promotion

All Elite Wrestling All Elite Wrestling (AEW) is an American professional wrestling promotion based in Jacksonville, Florida. It is considered the second largest wrestling promotion in the United States behind WWE. AEW is owned by Shahid Khan and his son Tony, ...

partnered with CEO to produce

Fyter Fest AEW Fyter Fest is an annual professional wrestling event produced by All Elite Wrestling (AEW). The event was established by the promotion in 2019 and is held during the summer; the first event was held in June but moved to July in 2020. The name, ...

. 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 A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsotaku is a Japanese word that describes people with consuming interests, particularly in anime, manga, video games, or computers. Its contemporary use originated with a 1983 essay by Akio Nakamori in '' Manga Burikko''. may be used as a pejorat ...

, 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 convention is an event or gathering with a primary focus on anime, manga and Japanese culture. Commonly, anime conventions are multi-day events hosted at convention centers, hotels or college campuses. They feature a wide variety of activ ...

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,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

weekend and coincided with the annual Star Wars Celebration at

Walt Disney World The Walt Disney World Resort, also called Walt Disney World or Disney World, is an entertainment resort complex in Bay Lake and Lake Buena Vista, Florida, United States, near the cities of Orlando and Kissimmee. Opened on October 1, 1971, ...

. 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 Ezra Samsora Morris, better known as Samsora, is an American former professional ''Super Smash Bros.'' player from New Orleans, United States. In '' Super Smash Bros. for Wii U'' he had a number of strong performances but no major tournament vi ...

, 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''.

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 events