Capcom Cup Champion Questions Lack of Weeklies In Japan

MenaRD has always been about using his platform to get issues into the ether of the fighting game community. His takes aren't always popular, like when he called Street Fighter 6 the scrubbiest game he had ever played. But his takes and questions always spark conversation, which is good for the FGC. 

In another of his questions, he asked about the competitive nature Japan, or lack of it. Japan is known as the strongest region for Street Fighter, but they are notorious for their lack of community events featuring the best players.

Mena posted asking: "Why dont we see more high level weekly tournaments in japan, like we have in america with TNS, Can Opener etc? Seems interesting, i think it has been a big part of us being more connected and is good practice under pressure every week."

This sparked a conversation as people gave opinions including people living in Japan and Japanese nationals. 

One of the most prominent answers was from Ryan Harvey, who is an American expatriate living in Japan. He said in his response that there were cultural elements to consider, especially around something he called the 'neutral party.' According to him, the neutral party was an organization or individual who had nothing to gain from putting up a competition. It seems a lot of people are mistrustful of pros who call for tournaments, sometimes believing it to be a way to mine content rather than a commitment to their growth and development. 

Kudo, a professional player who was recently in the United States for School and is in Saudi Arabia for Gamers8, said that he had had a conversation with Mena about this as it contrasted with his experience in the United States where he took part in weekly tournaments. He said he would like more of these so that he would thrive under pressure.

The conversation is an interesting one because a region as strong as Japan should have more tournaments where people can watch high-level play. One of the issues offered was the Street Fighter League schedule which makes it impossible to put on other tournaments. 

The Japanese do get to practice, but it seems this is mostly through private lobbies and tournaments. 

You can check out more reactions here.

The conversation is not one that can have an easy answer, but it would be great if there were more avenues to see both grassroots and high-level weeklies happen from Japan.