Without a doubt, tournaments are one of the most unique and fun events available for gaming. Unlike other MOBA (Multi-player online battle arena) tournaments like League of Legends and Dota 2, in fighting game tournaments, the focus is more on specific individuals rather than teams.
Of course, there are team tournaments too, but that’s a discussion for another time. For the time being, we’re going to talk about the epic struggle between two players, the glory of taking 1st place, and the hype of simply watching.
Put simply, a fighting game tournament functions like a convention. You pay the venue fee for attending, and then have a wide selection of games to attend to. There are normally “free play” sections in each tournament, where people brought set ups from home and play for fun, but the real meat is the tournaments. You can sign up for tournaments and, depending on the event, may be charged for each sign up. This would be because your money for participating will contribute to the winners pot. Generally, the pot will be split with +50% of the winnings going to first, a smaller percentage for 2nd, and so forth (usually down to 5th).
Tournaments are the bread and butter of fighting games. Top players from around the world get together and face-off for money and glory, and it is glorious to watch. Although, it can be admittedly difficult to follow without knowing the game mechanics and lingo ( like footies, block stun, reads, command grabs, salt, hype, etc.), but I will be sure to cover what I know for you guys in the future! In the meantime, I’m going to drop some twitch channels of Tournament streams and, if today is 2/22/15, then you may be able to catch the finals of Winter Brawl 9 Live! If not, there’s always the archives.
http://www.twitch.tv/teamsp00ky
Crouching Light Punch : The Beginner's site for Fighting Games 