Fighting game community

The fighting game community started out small in the late 1990s and throughout the 2000s referred to as the grassroots era, but it has grown to a larger scale in the 2010s, with many tournaments being held around the world.

This is predominantly due to the rise of esports, online gaming, and digitized viewing habits on live streaming sites such as Twitch.

Highly competitive communities formed naturally in Chinatown Fair in New York City, Super Just Games in the Chicago area, and the Golfland arcade halls in Sunnyvale and Stanton, California.

This tournament was conceived in order to quell debate over who was the best Street Fighter player in the country, but also attracted international competitors.

[5] In London, England most arcades would have had Street Fighter II, including in the basement of Hamleys[6] and more competitive venues like Casino Leisure Centre.

The site became the main go to forum for many fighting game competitors and it quickly attracted the community to create major tournaments to gather the best players from around the country.

[32] The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a sudden pause to offline FGC events, with many communities relying on online services to connect.

"[40] The FGC has also been noted as being relatively accepting of LGBTQ competitors compared to other gaming communities, with top-level players such as Dominique "SonicFox" McLean and Sasha "Magi" Sullivan being open about their experiences with gender identity.

[44] The moment saw Daigo parry every hit of Chun-Li's super art while only a pixel of his health remained, before depleting the rest of Justin's healthbar with a counterattack.

"[47][48][49] Evo Moment 37 is commonly referenced when players perform comebacks by utilising risky parries, a sign of its strong legacy in FGC culture.

These soundbites would be featured in many "MLG Montage" parody videos outside of the FGC, and "Wombo combo" has been used to describe other exceptional team combos in Super Smash Bros.[52] Another famous commentary moment occurred during the Guilty Gear Xrd tournament at Evo 2015, in which competitor Woshige celebrated a premature victory against his opponent, Ogawa.

[57][58] Some tournaments have hosted female-only events, such as EVO 2010's women's invitational for Street Fighter IV, in hopes of creating a more welcoming environment.