When it comes to competitive gaming, tournaments are the backbone of the genre. Over the past year, many tournaments made adjustments due to the effects of COVID-19. As 2021 begins, however, safety precautions will likely continue as planned events and tournaments are forced to adapt to an online presence. One of the largest markets affected by the ongoing pandemic is fighting games.

The fighting game scene is mostly a social one, uniting players across the world in competition. Throughout 2020 however, several large-scaled annual fighting game tournaments across the United States, such as Combo Breaker and CEO, were canceled or shifted to an online-only format. In the past, annual fighting game leagues, like Bandai Namco's Tekken World Tour and Arc System Works' Arc World Tour, prided on hosting various qualifiers around the world. These leagues were also restricted to online events, with Capcom's own league suffering a similar fate.

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The Capcom Pro Tour was initially postponed due to the uncertainty of the pandemic's effect on offline play. Early Summer, the Capcom Pro Tour kicked things off with several online qualifiers. The climax, Capcom Cup 2020, was scheduled to take place on February 19-21 in the Dominican Republic. A month after the announcement, Capcom released an official statement canceling the Capcom Cup finals amid rising COVID-19 cases. The event will switch to a two-day "online season final" on February 20th and the 21st.

One of the major criticisms regarding online gameplay in fighting games is unreliable netcode. To put things in perspective, the difference between winning and losing a game is left to player skill in an offline setting. Online, there are far too many variables that leave things to chance. Lag spikes, throttling speeds, and dropped frames are just some of the major inconsistencies that disrupt the flow of gameplay on both parties. Most of the time, it's enough to drop game-winning sequences altogether.

Street Fighter 5's netcode has been the subject of criticism ever since the game's release. The criticism amplified throughout the online qualifiers of the Capcom Pro Tour. It was enough for professional player Punk, to explicitly and publicly outcry against it, causing Capcom to issue punishment for "unsportsmanlike conduct."

As fighting games are played online a lot more these days due to the pandemic, several fighting games have rallied towards adopting rollback netcode or improving the online experience altogether. Games such as King of Fighters 2002 UM and Guilty Gear XX: Accent Core Plus R experienced record highs in player count as a result. One of Tekken 7's selling points for its Season 4 release was the promise of an improved netcode. The positive response following Season 4's improvement also reflected on its increased player count during the start of the season.

With the anticipated Capcom Cup being an online-only event, fans can hope that the experiences in 2020 will be enough for Capcom to consider improving the online experience for many in the future. If the supposed leak involving Street Fighter 6 is true, fixing the netcode would be in Capcom's best interest to maintain a strong player base.

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