Back in March 2022, Resident Evil and Street Fighter publisher Capcom unveiled new guidelines for its fighting game tournaments. While at a glance these guidelines seemed fairly regular, including details around gameplay needing to be featured of Capcom games and promoters being unable to sell official merchandise as if it were their own, there were some other restrictions which caused outrage in the community. Namely, Capcom was decreasing the amount of prize pool money drastically, meaning that Street Fighter tournaments could not offer anywhere near the same winnings to players as other eSports and fighting games could.
Now, it seems that Capcom is going back on some of those decisions. In a recent update posted to Capcom's blog, the company acknowledged that it could've handled its new guidelines better and stated that its aim was not to create the fan backlash that occurred. "We want to thank our passionate fans for the feedback we received," Capcom said. Following listening to the feedback, the Street Fighter 5 Community License Agreement was updated, with some major changes made especially where prize pools were concerned.
The $2,000 prize pool limit was changed to $10,000 per event, meaning that Street Fighter 5 pro players now have more of a monetary incentive to compete. Previously, even bigger tournaments like the Evolution Championship Series or EVO would have allowed only for a smaller prize pool, despite Street Fighter 5 being one of the headlining games of this year's tournament. There was also a removal of the yearly prize pool limit, meaning that organizations should hopefully feel less restricted in the amount of tournaments they can run.
For smaller organizations and grassroots Street Fighter 5 tournaments, there are also changes to spectator fees and venue restrictions for bars. While alcohol brands are still prohibited sponsors, using a bar as a venue will allow for more people to have access to an eSports event. Also, now any captured footage of a Street Fighter tournament will not have to be handed over to Capcom, and can be streamed on Twitch and YouTube. While Twitch viewership has seen a general decline recently, allowing fans all over the world to watch an event live via the streaming platform will only support a grassroots tournament.
Despite Capcom making an effort to improve the state of the Street Fighter 5 tournament scene, some still feel that the grassroots community is being overlooked to better support Capcom events like Capcom Pro Tour. However, with Street Fighter 6 on the way, Capcom at least need to keep its fans somewhat happy in order to support its upcoming fighting game.
Source: Capcom