This year’s Capcom Pro Tour 2017 sees changes to the qualification process for the major fighting games event.
The Capcom Cup will feature 32 of the best Street Fighter V players globally with a $600,000 (£482,500) to play for, and the organisers have sought to make the qualification process simpler for 2017.
The simplified system will include an updated points system with Pro Tour events split into three categories; Ranking, Premier and Evo. Players will collect points at these and their results across the board will determine who qualifies for and attends the Capcom Cup.
The new points system has been selected in a bid to better reward consistently strong performances, rather than the format of old which saw the winners of events given a significantly larger portion of points. It also rewards those who perform when the pressure is on at the big events; as an example a top three finish in a Premier event is worth more than the same finish at a Ranking event. A win at Evo meanwhile, taking place in July in Las Vegas, outscores a Premier event.
The qualification for the Capcom Cup is particularly complex due to its global coverage; there are four regions (North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia) with 50 online events and 16 offline events announced for 2017. There’ll be 8 players from each region and $30,000 (£24,100) up for grabs at each. There will be more tournaments announced however and 2017 could well exceed the 72 events that made up the qualification for the 2016 Capcom Cup.
This year’s Pro Tour gets underway in Atlanta on March 10 with Final Round XX, and heads to the UK for EGX in Birmingham at the end of the month. In terms of Premier events it will also stop at the likes of Dreamhack Austin, Dreamhack Summer in Sweden, TW Fighter in Taiwan and more.
Esports Insider says: NuckleDu will have his work cut out to retain his Capcom Cup Champion status with a surge in interest in fighting games in recent months which has seen the likes of Echo Fox and mouz pick up players. We love the FGC and look forward to seeing the final 32.