K.-O. by the Covid-19, the pros of the fighting game want their revenge

• Every Thursday, in its “Off-Pitch” section,

  20 Minutes

  explores new, unexpected, unusual, clever or booming spaces for sporting expression.

• This week, dive into a historical discipline of e-sport: fighting games, whose flagship titles today are

  Street Fighter 5

  ,

  Tekken 7

  or

  Super Smash Bros.

  Ultimate

  .

• In recent months, specialists in the discipline have been particularly affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and the cancellation of tournaments.

  In question, the difficulties of playing online, and especially the loss of a social aspect dear to

  versus fighting

  .

Usually, they are accustomed to taking the blows.

This time, the fighting game pros could not avoid the knockout, inflicted by an opponent too strong for them: the Covid-19.

The relative rise of esports during the pandemic hasn't benefited pundits from

,

, or

.

While the online tournaments maintained on other games attracted confined spectators, they remained idle, deprived of competition and the social aspect dear to the discipline.

Like EVO, the fighting games high mass organized every year in Las Vegas, most “face-to-face” e-sport events were canceled with the appearance of the virus.

Other games, such as

or

, quickly switched to online formats and benefited from the increase in viewership, estimated at +12.4% between 2020 and 2021 by Newzoo.

Versus

, for its part, struggled to do the same.

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Legitimacy and “frames”

“Since 2020, there haven't really been any tournaments.

There have been offline invite events with a handful of players.

Apart from that, we had almost two years without competition”, says Olivier “Luffy” Hay, who has one of the most beautiful French prize lists on the

franchise .

“Historically,

is an

scene ,” he continues.

When we do a competition, we really go to the place of the tournament.

The online mode will serve as training, it remains not very legitimate.

When we talk about pure and hard competition, it is offline that will prevail.

»

The reason is mainly technical.

"When playing online, there is always a minimum of delay", specifies "Luffy".

This delay, the

experts estimate it in

: to understand, to put it simply, the number of images broadcast by the game each second.

"A loss of two to three

, derisory for the general public, can be very impactful for a pro player", adds the winner of the EVO 2014, the equivalent of the world championship.

“These are games that require extreme precision, abounds William “Glutonny” Belaïd, current best French player on

.

Online, when I press, my shot can come out up to twice as late as usual.

It changes the whole game.”

The media discourse tends to suggest that esports would be the "big winner" of the crisis.

The reality is more complex.

➡ Publication in Jurisport of the study by @Fra_esports on the economic impact of the crisis on the French sector.

💸 Between 6.7 and 13.1M€ of losses!

pic.twitter.com/64llIyrngj

— Nico Besombes (@NicoBesombes) June 17, 2021

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“More tournaments, more visibility…”

Who says fewer tournaments necessarily means fewer opportunities to earn a living for these players, who depend on sponsors as much as

offered in case of victory.

Some have lost big, as explained by Marie-Laure “Kayane” Norindr, historical player of the French scene and organizer of events: “Players were thrown by their team.

AS Monaco, for example, has banned its players from fighting games.

They said to themselves: "No more tournaments, more visibility, so we stop everything".

»

“I lost contracts because of Covid-19, and my value as a player went down.

Why invest in a fighting game and not rather in

, where you can continue to have your visibility?

asks “Luffy”.

Before insisting on the relative precariousness of

, compared to other disciplines: “We are not on the same salaries as

or

, where it can go up to more than six figures.

A fighting game player retains a normal salary.

»

The importance of community

However, the loss is not only economic.

It is also social, as the community aspect is important for the fighting game scene.

A tradition that probably came from the era of arcades, even if their impact was less in France than in Asia.

“A lot of people go to a tournament to see their friends, for the atmosphere.

You go there to play, and also to meet people, loose “Glutonny”.

To lose this family side, it would be a shame.

“Kayane insists on the “associative” side: “The

community , for example, was born thanks to associations and the organization of local tournaments, and not thanks to Capcom, the game publisher”.

#Tekken7 players are setting the mood!

😆 the TOP3 in progress!

https://t.co/iQSY68869E pic.twitter.com/OFavO8KiUC

— Kayane (@Kayane) May 14, 2022

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"We see that it's gone again for good"

To be convinced of this, just look at the atmosphere of the first post-Covid competitions, such as the historic Stunfest in Rennes, and the recent edition of the “Kayane Sessions”, organized by the French champion in Paris.

The May edition was the first since last December, then held in reduced numbers.

“We were able to accommodate a hundred players.

They enjoyed seeing each other again.

We see that it's gone again for good, and we feel that there is a craze.

»

Our off-road file

This enthusiasm should continue, in the opinion of the actors of the scene.

The resumption of tournaments (including EVO, which will be held this year from August 5 to 7) and recent good French performances, such as the victory of "Glutonny" at an American Major (more or less the equivalent of a Grand Slam in tennis), shed light on

.

“Casing nothing, the Covid-19 frustrated all the players for two years.

A fighting game revival is coming, with new episodes of

,

, “Luffy” predicted.

I'm pretty sure the tournaments are going to be packed.

The second round is on.

Sport

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