UFA are poised to set a bar for competitive Street Fighter 6 with this announcement
Ultimate Fighting Arena 2023 (UFA 2023) are set to blaze a trail for fighting game competitions as they have announced that their Street Fighter 6 tournament is going to be first-to-3 for the entire event.
They made the announcement via their X (formerly Twitter) account where they also confirmed that the tournament will be run on PC for the best experience possible.
UFA have always wanted to be pioneers in the tournament organization space. For instance, they were the first major European tournament to run an event exclusively on PC which made their Street Fighter V tournament last year a very memorable one. This was also the tournament that EndingWalker made his debut to the world with an astonishing win in the Grand Final against Valmaster.
The topic of first-to-3 at tournaments has long been advocated by players and fans with the argument being that first-to-3 is a much better barometer for skill as it enables players to adapt better than a first-to-2 which has always been the norm.
The format continues to be first-to-2 for pools all the way to top 8 which is where the first-to-3 begins.
Mortal Kombat's Pro Kompetition had made this announcement saying that all their events were going to be exclusively first-to-3, and now UFA are following suit.
This format is not without its drawbacks. For one, it makes for a much longer tournament as the extra game eats up a tonne of time, and it'll be interesting to see how UFA manage this.
UFA 2023 will take place between the 24th and 26th of November 2023.