Start.gg to Prohibit Card Payments In Huge Blow for FGC

Start.gg is one of the most important websites to the FGC and while the relationship between the two hasn't always been great, they certainly need each other. However, recent changes could further strain an already tenuous relationship. 

This is because according to a report on Esports Illustrated, Start.gg has sent out an email to tournament organizers, informing them of a policy change for Start.gg which will affect the way in which payments can be made to tournament organizers from players, fans and competitors. 

Start.gg use the Irish company, Stripe, as the software provider to facilitate credit card payments and now with Stripe introducing a new policy, this will affect the fighting game community immensely. 

This change, made in May, was to add competitive gaming to the list of  “Prohibited and Restricted Businesses” which Stripe will not be supporting. Video games were included in the list which was generally under gambling. The exact wording says, "Games of skill including video game and mobile game tournaments/competitions, card games, board games with a monetary or material prize"

This essentially means that Start.gg will no longer be able to accept credit card payments. The platform will still accept PayPal, but this severely hampers the running of tournaments within the FGC. According to the email that Esports Illustrated were able to view, tournaments with paid events will no longer be able to link their Stripe accounts and tournaments with linked Stripe account will not be able to add any paid tournaments. 

This will all take effect from the 9th of October 2023. 

This is a difficult situation as the FGC already struggles with running events and making a living off of it. Now, with the categorization of tournaments such as Evo or Combo Breaker as 'glorified gambling events,' there is sure to be a little difficulty for tournament organizers. 

This comes after Start.gg announced a new write API with will potentially allow users to create a mobile app which is something the community has been clamoring for. 

Some tournaments have already started to implement the no credit card system.

There has been a recent trend of many TO's leaving the scene due to the difficulty of putting up events, and further discouragement like this could lead to even more tournaments that have been the backbone of the FGC, stepping away.