On the Growth of the FGC

The fighting game community, or FGC, is quite the enigma to many people in the general esports world. While esports as a whole is growing at a pretty ridiculous rate, many feel that the FGC is lagging behind a bit. And they’re right, to an extent. Prize pools and sponsorships in the FGC greatly lag behind those of other popular esports like League of Legends and Dota 2. The reason behind this lag, according to many, can be boiled down to a single question that has been the topic of much discussion on Twitter of late.

Does the FGC fall under the general “esports” bubble?

To the casual observer, it would an expected assumption to think that the answer would be a resounding yes. People are signed to esports teams to play games like Dragon Ball FighterZ and Street Fighter. They play in tournaments for money. Street Fighter even has the Capcom Pro Tour and Capcom Cup. Basically, it has all the makings of being “esports.” So why is it that we’re even asking this question?

Well, there’s a somewhat popular sentiment within the FGC that says they are actually not esports. In fact, many are vehement in their denial of any association with the big bad entity that is esports. It’s at this point that those within in the FGC and those in other realms of the esports world are starting to butt virtual heads.

“But Wyatt, why would they not want to be associated with the rest of the esports community?”

Woah, where did you come from, random voice asking questions? But to answer you…

A lot of the resentment that the FGC has with being lumped into the rest of the esports community has to do with the roots of the FGC. That is, the grassroots.

The FGC lives and breathes on the grassroot efforts of members of the community. While League of Legends and Overwatch got plenty of big organization support pretty much out the gate, the FGC has by and large been a community that subsists without a lot of help from the outside. The scene started out in arcades and then just kind of grew from there. But most tournaments were, and still are, put on by members of the community. Whereas most Counter-Strike events are put on by big-name tournament organizers like FACEIT and ESL, even stops along the Capcom Pro Tour (like Final Round) are organized not by a big organization, but by regular old Joes (or Larrys, in the case of Larry “Shin Blanka” Dixon, organizer of Final Round). It’s this grassroot nature that is a big sticking point in this discussion.

Many in the FGC refuse to be considered “esports” because they don’t want things to change. It’s very much a “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” kind of thing. I think that people are afraid that the identity of the FGC will get lost in the shuffle or stifled if they were to “give in” and “become esports.” Is this a bit of an overblown concern? Yes. But do they nonetheless have some valid reason for concern? Yes.

One of the defining traits of the FGC, in my mind, is the trash talk and the swagger. Whereas the major esports tend to shy away from having big, boisterous personalities, members of the FGC pride themselves on their pop offs. I mean, look at this:

“TELL HIM ABOUT HISSELF!!” That is absolutely my favorite FGC clip of all time. It solidifies the hype and intensity that these players bring day in and day out. They’ve all got chips on their shoulders, and they aren’t afraid to show it.

Now, let’s compare that with some of the stuff that happens in the Overwatch League. I’m not talking about the suspensions or fines that have been handed down because those were all justified as the players were usually saying something homophobic or racist. But overall, there’s been a general feeling of Blizzard wanting to keep things very kosher over in the OWL. So much so, that a coach from the Los Angeles Gladiators issued a public statement apologizing for inadvertently bumping into a couple of players on the opposing team. Yes, that is a real thing that happened. Go take a look for yourself if you don’t believe me.

Sure, this is just one isolated incident in one of the biggest and most structured leagues in all of esports. That kind of thing doesn’t happen all across esports. But still, when you look at that and then look at the video above, you can imagine that some in the FGC may be afraid that all of that will be taken away from them.

Moreover, you have the issue of some tournament organizers in the scene not wanting to give up their roles. If you “become esports,” then the big guys will come into the picture and guys like TeamSp00ky and others won’t be able to organize these tournaments. At least, that’s what I perceive to be the common thought here.

If you let the FGC go mainstream and get the big boys involved, it won’t really change all the grassroots tournaments and local scenes that are out there. ESL hosting a major FGC event isn’t going to stop your local Wednesday Night Fights tournament from taking place. I’ve heard a lot of people (which we will get to in a minute) saying that it’s the members of these local scenes that are to blame for the FGC not breaking into the rest of the esports realm. I have no idea if that’s true, or if it’s also at the pro level, but the thought that local scenes will crumble should the FGC open up its doors a bit is just silly. It won’t happen.

So while I certainly think that the FGC has some valid reasons to fear the general esports world coming in an taking things over, I do not think that those reasons should be a reason not to try and diversify a bit and open things up. Getting some more exposure in the form of more sponsors, which in turn can hopefully lead to bigger prize pools across the board, isn’t a bad thing at all. They should want things to get a bit bigger in order to grow the scene as a whole. Sometimes you have to take a risk that things might change in order to grow. But I swear, if it happens and I don’t get to see ridiculous pop offs anymore, I’m going to be pissed.

If the FGC is ever going to let its guard down and let some big things happen, though, it needs to happen organically. Trying to force change on the scene is a recipe for disaster if I’ve ever seen one.

If we want to try and get another segment of the community to open up, forcing them isn’t the way to go. It’s not as if this is something out of the ordinary, either. I haven’t been following CS:GO since the beginning, but if I had to guess, there were segments of the community that didn’t want to open the floodgates either. Granted, the FGC has been closing itself off for much longer than CS:GO ever could have. But I feel as though the sentiment can’t be unique to this community.

At the end of the day, a lot of this comes down the whole “us vs. them” philosophy. Which is another problem throughout the gaming world.

I think Slasher really nails it here. All throughout esports, everyone likes to only praise their own community. There are so many instances of “your shit stinks, our slightly different but basically the same shit is way better” that it’s a bit hard to wrap your head around.

That, I think, is the heart of this entire issue. Once the esports/gaming community as a whole, can stop putting up walls and barriers between their communities, maybe then, everything could just run smoothly and we can all hold hands while singing Kumbaya. Okay maybe that was a bit far, but you get my drift. There is far too much dissension and animosity throughout different parts of the esports community to foster growth everywhere.

Basically, the larger esports community needs to stop shit talking and trying to force change on the FGC, and the FGC needs to stop being so damn stubborn and loosen up a bit. Once those things happen, I think we can finally see some real growth in this community.