Written by HotSoup
Tomorrow, November 21st at 9pm EST we’ll be hosting a special double elimination bracket on the FightRise Discord! A pristine hardcover copy of The Art of Street Fighter is up for grabs as the first place prize as well as various gift cards and other prizes for a conjoined “0-2 side bracket.” I’m happy to say the One Fight Stand (OFS) bi-weekly tournament series has been a big hit for the FightRise Discord channel. It has accomplished many of the goals I had set out for when creating the series and this special tournament format feels like a fitting culmination of everything we’ve accomplished this year since the launch of Street Fighter 6.
The theory and understanding of fighting games is important, and there’s a lot of resources out there for Street Fighter 6 specifically. However, when it comes to practical application the choices feel limited. In many ways, it feels like the same ones we’ve had since Street Fighter 4 launched almost two decades ago. In Street Fighter 6 you could spend your time grinding rank, you could travel and spend money to join tournaments at a local (if you’re fortunate to have them in your area), you could maybe join the many double elim tournaments -free or paid, that are available online, you could try and spend time looking for equally matched players in SF6’s Battle Hub, or beg for games in various, hopefully active, Discord channels. The rank grind is probably the most efficient option, and the advice you’ll get from many, but it’s not always the funnest experience and can be very solitary.
Thinking on it, my favorite memories of playing and getting better at Street Fighter at locals was when we had a shortage of players to run a double elimination bracket and the tournament organizers instead created round robin pools. In this environment I got to play against many different characters, many different skill levels, and the action was non-stop. I remember wondering at the time, why didn’t more TOs do this? For players trying to gauge their progress or figure out where to focus their training, it really seemed like the best format.
ImageOmega and the FightRise channel afforded an opportunity to put my theory to the test. Our first OFS Round Robin had just 8 people in it. Still, so many of the participants told me it was the most fun they’ve had in a fighting game ever. Better than ranked. Better than getting knocked out 0-2 in a double elim bracket. They actually gained some tangible knowledge about how they performed to then focus some action on improving. It was great validation. The management of the round robin pools was made infinitely easier with ImageOmega’s investment in Tourney Bot, a Discord bot that basically handled every aspect of the tournament in a very intuitive way.
Since that first OFS we’ve had a steady growth in our attendees and a correlating growth of the channel itself. We’re now averaging 30 people and up to 4 pools with every OFS and the whole thing seems limitless in growth.
I can’t wait to see where the future of OFS takes us. I get such great pleasure in managing and coordinating them. Also seeing our regular FightRise members grow and improve with each one. It’s been an incredibly fulfilling experience. I can only hope it gets bigger from here.
If any of this resonates with you, come join us! http://fightrise.com/discord
HotSoup is a dedicated player and mentor to so many newcomers to Street Fighter 6. He is the lead organizer on all One Fight Stand and FightRise events.