PlayStation Magazine - 05.2020

024

OPINION

Benjamin ‘Rayokarna’ Porteous-Heath

The next gen needs to hit the dojo to 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 to

games 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.