How Street Fighter V Impacted the Scottish FGC - A Launch Retrospective

[Archived article from themcnaughtonblog.co.uk, first published 18/05/2020]

As a Scottish fighting game player, I was excited for the release of Capcom’s Street Fighter V (2016). The local community at the time were interested in what Street Fighter V could provide for the scene, given that Ultra Street Fighter IV (2014) was one of the most popular games in the Scottish FGC (Fighting Game Community). Capcom provided fans the opportunity to play Beta versions of the upcoming game which sparked enthusiasm within many communities.

Fast-forward to present day and Street Fighter V has had many updates to its gameplay, story and online functionalities. Players are still regularly playing and creating content for the game. Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, community figureheads are still organizing competitive online events for the game, including Saltmine League, Tarmac Gaming, and Capcom’s newly named WinnerStaysIn Sessions just to name a few. In their latest Investor Relations Report, Capcom has conveyed their interest in supporting professional players by offering an Esports Academy service. This recent development shows that Capcom understands the importance of competitive play, stating that ‘the Company (Capcom) sees esports as an integral part of its future growth strategy’. Nevertheless, after four months of the Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (2020) upgrade release, this would be a great time to reflect on how far Street Fighter V has come over the years and also highlight how the Scottish FGC was impacted.

Naught

To preface, fighting games have been an interest of mine for a large amount of time, but I started seeking out local Scottish communities in 2015. Since then, I have played multiple fighting games on a competitive level and Street Fighter V was my major time sink. I have played over 2,500 hours, practicing and competing at local and international tournaments with a brief stint as a Professional Esports Player for Hashtag United in the Gfinity Elite Series (Season 4, 2018). As an active member of the fighting game community, I would like to think that I have some ground to praise, but also critique the game as a whole.

Brief History

The Street Fighter series has always been known for its characters, stages and genre staple gameplay functionalities. Capcom is a pioneering developer when it comes to fighting games, making one of the most influential arcade fighting games Street Fighter II: The World Warrior (1991). This one game created a set of design norms and gameplay values that would be considered for any developer creating a fighting game. Capcom distinguished themselves as a reputable developer for fighting games and continued to support this genre through releasing many other fighting games. In 2014, Capcom announced that Street Fighter was making the leap to the next-generation with Street Fighter V, and fans were hyped.

On the surface, Capcom had a clear goal for Street Fighter V being a long-standing competitive fighting game for all skill levels. The promise of lowering the entry barrier in executing complex moves and simplifying game mechanics meant that anyone who wanted to play could have a better competitive experience. For avid fighting game players, the prominent considering factor to be concerned with was the gameplay. Regular competitors were keen to see if Street Fighter V was a satisfying competitive fighting game worthy of their time to become the strongest. As it turned out, Street Fighter V was met with a mixed reception for a number of reasons.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly Ken

At launch, the game had sixteen unique playable characters to choose. A portion of the original world warriors were there, but also other fan favourite characters made a surprising return alongside new characters making their debut. Overall, the characters are well designed, except for Ken ‘Ugly-Banana-Hair’ Masters, and are all easily distinguishable from one another. Characters wield unique normal and special moves, playing totally different and carrying mechanical nuances in specific matchups. The addition of unique game mechanics such as V-Trigger, V-Skill, V-Reversal and Crush Counter changes the way players are meant to play, making Street Fighter V stand on its own from its predecessors. Some early negative comments about these mechanics were based on little experience and showed ignorance on how the game was meant to play. These mechanics, in hindsight, had to be thoroughly understood for players to stand a chance in battle. All new mechanics, and more, were addressed as soon as you boot-up the game.

The tutorial mode immediately prompts for first time players, asking players to perform certain actions against the CPU, demonstrating Street Fighter V’s new three frame buffer system to execute moves easier. This introduction gives all the basic information about Street Fighter V’s gameplay. However, it had not prepared us for what players were about to experience.

During its infancy, Street Fighter V looked like an entirely different game compared to now. Gamers complained about the lack of single-player features, such as the genre staple arcade mode, regarding the game as a bare-bone video game experience. As Street Fighter V was priced as a full retail game, many consumers thought they were getting ripped off due to the lack of content. The lack of basic fighting game functionalities, such as skimping on combo trials, made relying on other modes to pick up the slack essential. If players were expecting a unique story mode, then they were fairly disappointed with what they got. The rushed story mode allowed players to play as each character, presenting quick battles and shallow PowerPoint styled cutscenes in-between. No discredit to the artists involved, however when compared to the fully animated story sequences found in Street Fighter IV (2008), it is a let-down. While writing this, I completely forgot about the inclusion of the new Survival mode. I think that statement alone can explain how memorable it was. Clearly, Street Fighter V’s most appealing new feature for competitive players was the cross-platform online matchmaking. Unfortunately, the initial online experience was not smooth sailing.

Controversies

The game was plagued with connectivity and rage-quitting issues, commonly prompted by the infamous 10006 and 40002 errors. Rage-quitting left the rage-quitter’s points untouched and the winner missed out on well-earned League Points which made progressing through online ranks tedious. This method of manipulation from the violating player had no repercussive consequence. Players were understandably angry with this abusive practice. A now famous, and reflectively apt, reaction to the rage-quitting issue was made by Aris Avoiding The Puddle during his livestream.

Capcom attempted to resolve the situation by implementing a rage-quit system that penalise players who disconnect frequently. However, due to unstable server connections, players were more often than not unwillingly disconnected by the game itself, resulting in unfair temporary bans and deductions in League Points. Needless to say, the online infrastructure of Street Fighter V did not meet basic expectations. These issues were not the only ones Capcom has experienced.

Years earlier, a controversy that Capcom wishes to forget was the on-disk downloadable content for Street Fighter X Tekken (2012). In 2012, the debate of whether to charge for downloadable content to compensate for an incomplete game was common in the games industry. Despite this, Capcom caught some shade when they were discovered charging for downloadable content that was already on the disk. This was one of the most controversial gaming moments of 2012 and negatively affected Capcom’s reputation. They attempted to prevent this issue from happening in Street Fighter V by offering players another payment option for content, consisting of an in-game currency called Fight Money. Although later refined in future updates, the initial system made it difficult to achieve Fight Money as there were few avenues to earn it, making its inclusion redundant.

After a few weeks of the game’s release, players discussed the implications of Street Fighter V’s new gameplay tweaks. When broken down, characters each have one or two optimal combo routes that can be executed fairly easily by competent players with little practice. This highlights the shallow depth of possible creative combo routes. The newly added Crush Counter heavily punishes players even for the slightest of mistakes. Any move that was counter hit by a Crush Counter move raked up a ton of stun, creating situations where if you get Crush Countered twice in quick succession, you would most likely be stunned. This problem would have been avoided if there were more prominent defensive options in the game. Capcom decided to remove defensive options like invincible back dashes, thus creating an offensive meta game. An issue that is synonymous with Street Fighter V is its eight frames of input lag (133.36 milliseconds from button input to performed action in-game). Although this number of frames seems small, it is highly influential in fighting games. In comparison to other fighting games at the time, Street Fighter V had the most input lag on the market, affecting split-second crucial reaction situations. Juggling this amount of lag while competing can influence your gameplay results drastically.

Some of these gameplay and technical issues may have been as a result of Capcom releasing Street Fighter V too early. It is no secret Capcom decided to release the game in time for the Capcom Pro Tour season. Capcom doubled down on supporting esports by investing time and resources to organise events for their competitive players, collaborating with other Tournament Organisers from all over the world. Capcom did underestimate the value of single-player content and the mixed reception is well justified, however, they continued to support the competitive community. Regardless of the initial issues and controversies, Scottish Tournament Organisers were hot on the heels to introduce the game into their events, despite the public backlash.

The Scottish FGC Response

The response of Street Fighter V within the Scottish FGC was substantially large. While in the heart of Edinburgh’s FGC Rushdown Edinburgh, I witnessed players clamouring to play the Beta versions of Street Fighter V. Street Fighter players were ready to move their focus onto the sparkling new PS4 exclusive. It came as no surprise that Rushdown’s Tournament Organiser Craig 'Edinbulba' Fairweather would feature Street Fighter V tournaments upon release. Other scenes followed suit such as Aberdeen (Reset Aberdeen), Dundee (Giant Attack Dundee), Kirkcaldy (Battle Lounge Fife, formerly known as Turbo Tuesdays Kirkcaldy) and Glasgow (Burn to Fight Glasgow). At this time, every scene in Scotland included Street Fighter V in their tournament line-up. Scottish FGC members that were once dormant in competing soon emerged to play the new game in town. This period brought in a new and young gamer demographic to the Scottish FGC. When playing in these scenes, the game allowed for healthy discussions on gameplay intricacies, character viability and created an overall sociable environment. The biggest annual Scottish FGC tournament Hypespotting also added the game that year, even becoming a ranking event for the Capcom Pro Tour. Although the Scottish FGC were relatively more forgiving with the absence of single-player features, they soon experienced the glaring flaws that hindered Street Fighter V’s initial ability to provide a rewarding experience. Following that, I soon saw a dramatic change in the Scottish FGC.

The Impact on the Scottish FGC

After a couple of months since the launch of Street Fighter V, the hype died down and players were dropping the game entirely. In some cases, players decided to discontinue their support for the current game, refusing to engage in social media or actively discrediting the game. Even to go as far as forming USF4Revival, a social media hub for Ultra Street Fighter IV competitive matchmaking, out of protest against Capcom. Even with the emergence of Anti-Street Fighter V discourse, the new Scottish FGC members who started with the game were still active within the scene. It is important to understand that the old guard supporting the Scottish FGC, who mostly played Street Fighter IV, slowly faded away after the release of Street Fighter V.

I always wondered why Street Fighter V pushed away the old guard from the Scottish FGC. I questioned whether it was stubbornness to adapt to a new Street Fighter, discontent with the community or external life influences. To certify this, I spoke with a fellow Scottish Street Fighter player named Brian ‘Brian' Thomson who is a veteran in the Scottish FGC, being one of the first Scottish Street Fighter players to be professionally sponsored by a gaming organization. He has had a profound Street Fighter IV and Street Fighter V gaming career, playing in many international tournaments with impressive tournament results. As Brian was a community figure during the Street Fighter IV days, he would bring great insight on the subject of the Scottish FGC’s transition from Ultra Street Fighter IV to Street Fighter V.

Brian

Brian starts by relating his own experience as a Street Fighter competitor.

I guess the fact that I was getting super consistent results in Scotland at the time and was freshly sponsored by Rize, the thought of a brand new game where I was on a level playing field as the top international players was exciting. Overall I'm all about the competition. I've still never really understood why Street Fighter V seemed to kill the scene so much.

He mentions the significance of Rushdown Edinburgh in the Scottish FGC.

I also feel the fact that when Craig got his new job and was no longer to essentially do all the organising for Rushdown, unless someone else could take on his responsibilities, it would’ve died even if it was still Street Fighter IV. People didn’t realise how much time he gave up and how much work he put into Rushdown.

Finally, Brian mentions that Street Fighter V’s release may not have influenced community decline.

The timing was probably just coincidental with the release of Street Fighter V, that's how Reset Aberdeen managed to stay as the strong community because all of the guys continued to put in the work to grow the scene and have regular events. Then the only other scene that died off was Dundee but again they were never really into Street Fighter, they have always been more of an anime scene so when everyone other than Aberdeen called it a day on Street Fighter it was a no brainer that they would too.

After a year and a half since the release of Street Fighter V, there was a stretch of time where the game stagnated and declined in Scottish FGC engagement, I will name this ‘The Scottish Street Fighter V Drought’. During this time, very few Street Fighter players from the central belt of Scotland would meet up at locals anymore, resulting in very few tournaments. The competitor numbers were so low, that Tournament Organisers were replacing Street Fighter V due to logistics. Players wondered where the state of the game was heading, questioning if the game was ‘dead’.  The newly released Tekken 7 (2017) became the most popular fighting game in Glasgow, surpassing Street Fighter V’s stagnant population in an instant. The relevance of Street Fighter in Scotland was no longer important to the vast majority of players. Small community resurgences in the Street Fighter V scenes would occur from updates to the game, enticing players to come back and try the new gizmos. Aspiring professional players were struggling to practice in an offline environment because of the lack of local scene opportunities. Players who irregularly attended their weekly local scene, or something as simple as not bringing a PS4 to play Street Fighter V, were other reasons as to why the Scottish scenes disregarded the game, losing its mainstay appeal.

Although my personal account of these experiences could suffice, I contacted fellow community members to not only validate, but to bring more depth to this conversation. I discussed the early days of Street Fighter V with close Scottish FGC friends, all who are very active and provide a lot of support for the scene, whether that would be organizing events, producing commentary or uploading content through Twitch.tv. Their social media presence can also not be ignored, frequently discussing everything FGC related. In this section, they will address their unfiltered thoughts on Street Fighter V while giving insightful perspectives on the Scottish FGC.

First up, we have Assad ‘Suleymon’ Suliman, a former Professional Street Fighter V Player for FNATIC. I first met Suley at a local Glasgow scene called Burn to Fight and we hit it off straightaway. We were former teammates for a grassroots Scottish esports team called Perilous Gaming and began sharpening our skills in hope of competing at the highest level possible. I could tell that he was a highly sociable person that I could learn from, inside and outside the game.

Suleymon

What is your Origin Story? How did you get started in the Scottish FGC?

I used to watch a lot of FGC videos online your classics likeMaximilian and Excellent Adventures, it got to the point that I had to actively look up if there was an active fighting game scene in Scotland and was able to find Versus Scotland and saw that they met up at a place called 1levelup, that would be my first interaction with them but i'd never truly start getting involved until Street Fighter V came out and I went to the first tournament with the same lot.

What was your first impression of Street Fighter V? Hype or dead on arrival?

HYYPE bro are you kidding me? I was finally able to properly experience a fighting game at the same time as everyone else, getting in while everyone else is still learning is proper crucial for a good time.

With the initial problems Street Fighter V had (connection issues, rage-quitting, eight frames input lag), why did players still support the game? What factors should be considered?

Haha support? A lot of people left! I think for all its flaws it was still Street Fighter, Capcom invested enough in the tournament infrastructure so that people still had stuff to do, there was a lot of eyes on it from an esports point of view since you had stuff like Gfinity providing more and more opportunities to travel. There was a lot more going on AROUND the game rather than just the game basically, but it was still a good game. If it was terrible the aforementioned stuff wouldn't have saved it.

Did anyone from your scene completely drop the game after a few months? If so, any reasons why?

The whole Edinburgh scene practically disappeared uno. It'll be a mix of things though, learning a new fighting game after being used to an old one is a weird experience because very little carries over so you have to go through all the frustrations all over again. Also it's an age thing, as people get older they have more responsibilities whether it be personal or career commitments meaning they won't really have that same hunger innit.

How influential do you think the Capcom Pro Tour is for competitive players and the longevity of Street Fighter V?

Not gonna lie i think it's the only thing that made people keep playing. A fighting game with no professional tour is like a boxing circuit with no belt. The game sure is fun but with fighting games the real fun comes from trying to prove you're the best in your locals/region and watching the results of the rivalries that develop because of the competition. If there was none of that, I don't think many people would've played it for that long. You come in for the game and how fun it is, but you stay for the competition.

Would you agree that Street Fighter V: Champion Edition has come a long way since the release of Street Fighter V? What are some of its strongest elements?

Oh definitely, the game wasn't the best at launch and they pretty much answered like 90% of the complaints since then regarding offline content and input lag and the game now feels like what it was always meant to be. I think something Street Fighter V does really well is character balance, despite the complaining you see a lot on twitter there's A LOT of characters who people are saying are broken and tournament viable. So when only a handful of the cast aren't viable this to me is evidence that the game's been well balanced and it allows people to switch to new characters and people to showcase the potential of lesser known characters adding to the excitement of tournaments.

Is there anything we can learn from the Scottish FGC?

As long as at least a handful of people turn up for games, you will always have a scene. Invest what you can to keep people about and recognise that building and maintaining a scene is a labour of love. Once you're at that point when you're constantly thinking of ideas to enhance it whether it be a regional mini major or championship league then you're on the right track.

Next we have Callum ‘SoundBoi', a newly sponsored Scottish Street Fighter V player for Aura Esports. Surprisingly, I thought I first met SoundBoi at a major tournament called VSFighting 2017 in Birmingham. It turns out that we both met two years earlier at Armagedinburgh in Edinburgh during the Ultra Street Fighter IV days. My impression of him was an outgoing lad who, at the time, believed in the Alex Nation. Now a prominent Cody main, he is looking to be a top player in Europe.

SoundBoi

What is your Origin Story? How did you get started in the Scottish FGC?

I’ve been playing fighting games ever since I was a wee lad and I’ve always loved them, but as I got into my later teens, I stopped playing them as much. This was until I was diagnosed with a depressive disorder while working away from home, and I was forced to return back to Edinburgh to get myself sorted out. Over time I naturally fell back in love with fighting games as I was off work for a time, and I met my mentor and very close friend James Masterson who saw potential in me and taught me everything I know about Street Fighter V. Once I felt confident to test my skills offline, I started to travel around to different scenes/tournaments around the UK. I eventually found myself in Aberdeen a few months later for my first Scottish local, named Reset Aberdeen, where I was greeted incredibly warmly. Unfortunately for me I actually placed pretty badly in this event but it was still a great time and I met some amazing folk. This in turn made me very excited about the strength of my fellow Scottish players, and I continue to travel to Scottish locals in Aberdeen, Glasgow and sometimes even my own city Edinburgh. This is to not only get stronger, but to meet some fantastic and genuine people along the way.

What was your first impression of Street Fighter V? Hype or dead on arrival?

I started off loving the game on release, especially as someone who was semi competitive. Over time however, I began to realise how unbalanced the roster felt as well as certain strategies being too powerful at that point in the game’s life (Throw loops being the main offender for me personally), and this in turn made me dislike the game more. The main thing keeping me going was the hype behind the DLC characters, especially Alex!

What was the initial appeal of Scottish Street Fighter V locals, tournaments and majors (Hypespotting)? Why not just play online?

I think there’s something to be said for being in a room/venue full of people interested in the same thing you are, and you’re all there for the same reason. It’s very hard to be angry at a human being sitting next to you having a great time just playing the game with you even if they absolutely smash you, it’s just a very fun experience. This was my reason for going initially, knowing there’d be strong players to fight frequently, and to make friends. This is opposed to online where it’s just you sat in your room alone, fighting a sprite/model on a screen controlled by whoever for online leaderboard placements. Online ultimately feels a lot hollower, and it’s definitely easier to become frustrated at because it lacks the human/social element to it. Another massive reason that offline preferred is that it’s a true representation of the game, whereas online gameplay can introduce extra factors such as connection issues, framerate problems, and sometimes poor matchmaking systems among other things.

What differentiates the Scottish Street Fighter V scene from other scenes in UK/EU?

I would say that people have forgotten/don’t realise just how strong some Scottish players are. Some are hidden gems admittedly, and others don’t travel as often as they’d like due to things like work constraints. I think there are a few in particular who, if allowed to shine, could really be world class players doing this full time.

Are there any particular Scottish Street Fighter V/FGC experiences you wish to mention?

Definitely have to mention the recent project to boost Street Fighter V in Glasgow and my hand in it. After a few months of similar attendance numbers, a couple of the Tournament Organisers, Street Fighter V players, and yours truly decided to create a way to incentivise players to come and compete regularly for some kind of reward other than just cash. This in turn led to us paying for a very expensive and custom championship belt, the creation of a monthly league table, and some promotional videos/posts on social media including light-hearted callouts of other players in the scene to generate some hype. It would all culminate in the top two players after 3 months competing in a long set for the belt, and one leaving as the champion. This would prove to be a very fun and successful idea, and will hopefully become a mainstay of Maximum Impact Glasgow.

How has your local Street Fighter V scene changed over the years, from start to present?

Admittedly I do travel to quite a few scenes when I can, so I don’t exactly have just one! Overall, the strength level feels like it’s always getting better as the understanding of the game increases and more new talent comes through the door. Maximum Impact Glasgow in particular I feel has gotten stronger since I started going with some new faces with raw potential turning up, and the odd FGC old guard returning every now and again to show the new guys how it’s done. It also especially feels this way once you start winning and the scene steps up to try and dethrone you, which it has done to me successfully more than once!

With the initial problems Street Fighter V had (connection issues, rage-quitting, eight frames input lag), why did players still support the game? What factors should be considered?

I think for me it was the idea that all these things could be fixed, and underneath these issues lay a genuinely fun, skillful, and enjoyable game. I also think that other players kept supporting the game because there wasn’t any other 2D fighting games like Street Fighter out there at the time, and loyalty to a series Is taken quite seriously in this community, hence why some people I’ve met in my travels have been playing Street Fighter competitively since before I was born and still regularly travel today!

How influential do you think the Capcom Pro Tour is for competitive players and the longevity of Street Fighter V?

Personally, I think it’s integral in order to maintain a competitive interest in the game with the rapid ascension of esports and their pay-outs over the years. Without the pro tour, you rely on the fan base being incredibly loyal to a franchise while simultaneously enjoying the current title itself just to maintain a consistent player base. With other fighting games and esports in general offering more money for similar enjoyment, time invested and skill, it’s essential to have cash prizes across a consistent schedule of tournaments for high level competitors to want to compete. In terms of longevity, it’s definitely helped out by giving people invested in any kind of degree something to watch/compete in on a regular basis.

Would you agree that Street Fighter V: Champion Edition has come a long way since the release of Street Fighter V? What are some of its strongest elements?

Absolutely. The game went from a shaky launch with a limited roster, very few modes, balancing issues and wonky net code, to a mainstay fighting game. Its strongest elements being it’s 40 character roster, great balance across the board, and honestly the support Capcom have been giving the game through not only the pro tour but balance patches as well. It’s definitely worth picking up and playing today, especially if you’re trying to learn fighting games as the learning curve is not as harsh as others.

Is there anything we can learn from the Scottish FGC?

Its resounding sense of community. I suppose this sort of applies to the FGC as a whole and more specifically some scenes within it (Newcastle, London, etc), but I also feel it tremendously from the Scottish FGC. There’s a sense of it being about more than just the game, we talk about things that are not just about fighting each other and we all eat together post event to celebrate another successful local. We support each other where we can, be it in the game or in real life also. There are even people who show up just to socialise and enjoy themselves, not even to enter the tournament. That in itself speaks volumes for how much of a community it feels, and how the people who go are more than just mere opponents, but friends.

Last but certainly not least, Stewart ‘Gibbo' Gibson. Co-founder of a popular Scottish FGC, and a gaming café named after it, called Reset Aberdeen. When Gibbo isn’t playing Final Fantasy XIV or representing the Devine Brand, he is a prominent Tournament Organiser for the Scottish FGC. Side note, one of the main reasons why I chose to study at the University of Aberdeen was because I had already established friends within the Aberdeen FGC through travelling to UK tournaments. If it was not for Reset Aberdeen’s existence, I would not be here in The Granite City. Gibbo has an acquired taste for Anime games and mains only the most Kawaii of fighting game characters, especially Vega.

Gibbo

What is your Origin Story? How did you get started in the Scottish FGC?

I first got involved in the Scottish FGC around August/September 2012. A uni friend of mine sent me a link to a Street Fighter IV tournament that was being held in a pub in Aberdeen. I contacted the guy running the event to make sure there was still room, we got talking, and we organised a small meeting. Six of us met up in a flat, played some games, and discussed the ideas we had about meeting up more regularly. The very next week we were playing in a local pub which was our weekly home for five years.

What was your first impression of Street Fighter V? Hype or dead on arrival?

From the moment we saw the first trailer I was all in on the game. There were numerous events with beta builds held across the country that I went along to just in order to grab some time with the game, there were hacked versions of the online Betas available for offline practice and I was all up on that as well.

What drew you to organizing Scottish Street Fighter V locals, tournaments and majors (Hypespotting)?

From the moment that Street Fighter IV hit the scene, playing it was basically a weekly ritual. Myself and three other friends would constantly play each other and we'd always talked about going out there and finding more people, but we didn’t really know where to start and we never really advanced past the dreaming big phase.

When our initial meeting in the flat with people we'd never met before happened, that all changed. In the space of one week we'd managed to organise a regular meet up and met a ton of new people around our city that were into the game as much as us and I never wanted to go back.

In order to keep it going, it needed people to step up and organise regular brackets, give people a way to see how much they improved, and to keep the competitive spirit alive. I was more than happy to be one of those people.

Our local didn't exist for the beginning of Street Fighter IV. So with Street Fighter V on the way, this was the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. We decided on dedicated monthly tournaments with were to be live streamed on Twitch, and casual level up sessions the weeks in between.

At the end of the day, the main reason that I do this is entirely down to the love of the game, and the Fighting Game genre in general. I love playing these games, and I love meeting other people that play these games. As long as we keep running these events, nobody will have to be like we were back in 2009 wondering if there are other people to play with.

What differentiates the Scottish Street Fighter V scene from other scenes in UK/EU?

“Our raw fukin' charisma”.

Are there any particular Scottish Street Fighter V/FGC experiences you wish to mention?

Oktoberfist 2012 – Dundee.

It was the first time a lot of us had left Aberdeen to play in tournament. Around 12 or so of us stormed a Megabus to head down to Dundee and we all got wiped out in bracket. It was wonderful.

How has your local Street Fighter V scene changed over the years, from start to present?

It's changed in a number of ways, both good and bad. When the game first came out, the number of new players we picked up was obviously much higher than it is now, four years down the line. As the life cycle winds down for the game, some people will obviously lose interest and attend less, and it gets harder to bring in new players.

On the other hand, we've turned a regular meet up of people with similar interests into a career by opening a LAN cafe under the branding of our local.

So, although Street Fighter V numbers may go down as we potentially wait for a new game to take its place, we now have our own space to help create and grow similar scenes for other games.

With the initial problems Street Fighter V had (connection issues, rage-quitting, eight frames input lag), why did players still support the game? What factors should be considered?

I think with a lot of games like this, in scenes like ours, the online is treated as a secondary issue. We primarily play offline so the online issues don't affect us quite as much. To a casual audience though it's a much more serious issue. I believe that we supported it because these issues didn’t affect us that badly, but how many new casual players did we lose early on due to them? How many new players that could have started coming to our locals and discovering a better way to play will we never get to meet because of these issues? There are methods that now exist that allow for a significantly better online experience, but that's down to the developers to put the effort in.

Once they do, offline scenes may find picking up new players to be a much easier task if the core game itself is able to retain the audience by providing a great experience.

How influential do you think the Capcom Pro Tour is for competitive players and the longevity of Street Fighter V?

I believe that the CPT does a great job in giving competitive players something to work towards each year. It also does a great job on bringing attention to events that wouldn’t have always had as big an audience. It's a constant way of getting new eyes on to the game that normally wouldn’t have considered buying it this late into the life cycle.

Would you agree that Street Fighter V: Champion Edition has come a long way since the release of Street Fighter V ? What are some of its strongest elements?

Absolutely. Compared to the original release, the roster has grown from 16 to 40 characters, offering significantly more ways to play the game, it also now comes with a wealth of single player content for a more casual audience.

Beyond that, the core game itself has been expanded with extra V-Skills and V-Triggers offering individual characters more options to deal with other characters.

Any other thoughts about Street Fighter V?

It's a good game. Play it. If you get the chance, go and play it locally with people that will be more than happy to play with you and help you learn the game.

Judging from these discussions, Street Fighter V is still a prominent game within the Scottish scenes, regardless of the turbulent launch. Considering the initial issues in the game, players were optimistic for what the future had in store for community and tournament opportunities. The support from the Capcom Pro Tour convinces players to compete in high-profile tournaments, however, the local community cements the urge to socialise, learn and practice with other competitors on a regular basis. The inclusive nature of the Scottish FGC allows individuals from all walks of life to freely play and discuss games with other members without prejudice. This welcoming atmosphere is the fundamental appeal for engaging in the Scottish FGC.

From experience, the Scottish FGC is one of the most approachable scenes in the UK. With rich community histories in the Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow scenes, the Scottish FGC continues to maintain a healthy and supportive network of fighting game enthusiasts. There is a strong consensus within the scene, but that does not mean we operate on a herd mentality. Each member is distinct, openly sharing their own personality with other likeminded people, creating long-lasting interpersonal connections. It does not matter if you only enjoy a particular fighting game franchise, dress a certain way or listen to Nightcore unironically, if you are here to enjoy yourself and have a social time, you are welcome. For many of us, the Scottish FGC is an all-encompassing subculture that sustains social links, facilitates a practicing environment for aspiring professional players and develops not only our player identity, but our personal identity.

Street Fighter V created a platform for individuals to express themselves as competitive players. Its ease-of-access execution and linear mechanics made the initial feeling of jumping into a new game for new players practicable and gratifying at the cost of established fans seeing this as a dumbed down experience. The thriving Scottish FGC slowly diminished after the release of Street Fighter V, but this turned out to be mainly coincidental as the old guard started moving into different life avenues. Although the game was heavily criticised at launch, Capcom frequently updated the game with new characters, stages, mechanics and well deserved quality of life changes to the gameplay. Although the Capcom Pro Tour is highly influential for players, the importance of local scenes cannot be underestimated. The social role of the local scene helps bring likeminded individuals into one collective group in addition to maintaining player enthusiasm for the game. The Scottish FGC creates long lasting social connections that transcend the competitive lifespan of a given fighting game. Capcom should continue to support competitive fighting game players and events as much as they have, if not more, because this is where the passion lies.