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OPINION
Benjamin ‘Rayokarna’ Porteous-Heath
The nextgenneedsto hitthedojoto compete
IN AN ERA WHEN ESPORTS
IS BIGGER THAN EVER, PS5
SHOULD GIVE EVERYONE, FROM
PLAYERS TO ORGANISERS, THE
TOOLS TO COMPETE.
F
ighting games are great,” is
what the famous Street
Fighter player Tokido said
when he won Evo. Really,
he isn’t wrong. I’m sure
everyone has played Street
Fighter, Tekken, or Mortal Kombat
for fun with friends, but for
newcomers it’s difficult to imagine
that there might be a competitive
scene for these games. While for
many ‘eSports’ means the likes of
Fortnite, Overwatch, or PC MOBAs,
fighting games have always had a
competitive edge from the arcades.
Even now, new players might not
realise how big tournaments for their
favourite skull-crunchers can be. For
me, the competitive scene was
originally a hobby, one that came from
the ability to play with friends when
online gaming for fighting games
didn’t exist (fun fact: the first game I
played competitively was Capcom Vs
SNK 2 on PS2). Over time, that
hobby grew, and led to me
founding the NGI Events and
becoming a tournament
organiser myself. Unlike
built-for-streamability
battle royales
these days, most
fighting game
communities
are grassroots,
starting from
humble beginnings- a group of
friends playing growing
into something bigger
like weekly tournaments
or monthly gatherings.
They don’t have the
structural backbone for a
tournament system built in from the
start like the newer genres.FUTURE PERFECT
Looking to a future when next-gen
consoles will be taking the lead, it
will be interesting to see how this
affects the competitive landscape.
The problem with each
generational shift is that the
cost of the new console
can make playing the
games that are on it
problematic. New fighters
can be flashy all you like,
but if nobody owns the
controllers or game,
nobody at a local level can
play it. The fact that PS5 is
backwards-compatible will
make the transition a lot
easier, however; especially if
it adds passive benefits togames like faster loading times to
extend their viability.
Full compatibility with previous-gen
controllers is an exciting change. This
alone can keep a lot of people in the
local scene, knowing that they don’t
have to buy a new controller/arcade
stick/adaptor for a new generation
(look up arcade stick prices!) This has
been a problem since the transition
from PS2 to PS3. Backwards
compatibility will make it a lot easier
for players to pick up new games and
for tournaments to shift over to newer
hardware, and it gives me hope that
players will be more inclined to give
games a go in the new console
generation. (My own wishlist as a
tournament organiser might sound
less exciting: the ability to de-sync all
controllers and lock profiles would be
a dream for running offline events).
From a community standpoint, the
share button has really improved the
ability to share content and techniques
on social media platforms. The ease of
showing off content compared to the
PS3-era makes it much easier to build
a local community and share
knowledge. If PS5 can build on that
sort of interactivity, we may see
fighting games really enter a new age.
Seeing flashy combos and moves on
social media entices people to make it
to locals and regionals to compete, and
greatly helps newcomers learn how to
play competitively. While it’s great to
see all eSports bringing people
together, it’d be great to see the next
gen give fighting games more of a
push. Locals will always be important,
but if fast-paced competitive action
can be slicker next gen, anyone who
gives it a go is bound to stay hooked.WRITER BIO
A player-turned-organiser for fighting game
events in the UK, Rayokarna and the rest of
the NGI Events team specialise in bringing
fighters together to support more niche
Japanese titles for competitive play, from
Dragon Ball FighterZ to Under Night In-Birth.