Street Fighter 6 has often seemed like it’s one fighting game title that’s broken free from the chains of the “struggling FGC” stereotype. The Capcom Cup 12 is a massive tournament with a massive prize pool. However, that prize pool comes at a high cost to the Street Fighter scene at large.
The FGC recently dug into Capcom’s rules for its Capcom Pro Tour, which is the season leading up to the Capcom Cup. There are plenty of regional and international tournaments for players to compete in, aiming to climb the leaderboard and qualify. However, these events are nowhere near as lucrative as the Capcom Cup 12. In fact, players feel that they are purposefully low so Capcom will have enough money left over to fund the Capcom Cup, inflating just how successful and big the scene is.
Journalist Carver Fisher said: “Capcom will do literally anything to hold on to that $1 million Capcom Cup grand prize, even if it means strangling the life out of dedicated community members who travel to events.
“Potentially the most baffling prizing structure I’ve ever seen in an esport.”
Street Fighter 6 Has a Laughable Prize Pool Throughout the Year
Throughout the year, the FGC hosts several prominent events featuring a wide range of titles, bringing the fighting game community together. Some of these events are part of the CPT, considered a Premier tournament for Street Fighter players. This includes COMBO BREAKER and CEO 2026, both of which have prize pools provided by Capcom.
It’s just $2,000 for the winner.
Even more shocking, Capcom has provided no prizes for Evo 2026 or other events despite them being part of the CPT. These prize pools must be provided by the tournament organizer.
This prize structure was found “disrespectful” and “baffling” by members of the FGC. While the Capcom Cup is a very lucrative tournament, only a handful of players will qualify. This means that players are winning barely any money throughout the year, even if they are at the top of their game.
This prompted some fighting game fans to call Capcom “greedy,” an accusation that’s been floating around for a while now. The decision to make the Top 16 of the Capcom Cup 12 a pay-per-view event had already rubbed the FGC the wrong way. There was so much backlash from fans outside of Japan that Capcom had to reduce ticket prices.
But the damage was already done. Many felt as though Capcom cared more about making money than supporting the Street Fighter 6 community. Barring FGC content creators from co-streaming the event didn’t sit right with many fans, who felt Capcom was harming the community’s growth just to make some cash.
This prize structure feels like another hit to the community. It’s difficult to grow the FGC when players are only rewarded with $2,000 if they fly across the world and place first. It’s pretty demoralizing and not even financially viable for many pro players, let alone casuals who won’t place.
At this point, can we really even make fun of the Smash scene? It’s often been ridiculed for its extremely low prize pools, but that’s because Nintendo has not just ignored the scene but also sabotaged it over the years, removing Smash from Evo and shutting down tournaments. But Street Fighter has Capcom’s support. Capcom runs its entire circuit. Yet the prize pool is very much the same all year round.
I’d say this is a lot more inexcusable. Smash’s excuse is that it’s funded by fans. Capcom is just blatantly refusing to create a viable tournament prize structure for anything but the Capcom Cup. As Fisher said, I guess this creates the illusion of success, with Capcom able to boast about its million-dollar tournament. However, pro players are suffering the rest of the year.
With so little money in the fighting game scene, it’s easy to see why Capcom wouldn’t want to invest a lot. But it’s still quite shocking to see right in front of your face. Plus, it wasn’t always this way. A few years ago, the prize pools were a lot better. This only adds to the “greed” accusations floating around in recent times.
Even though the FGC is full of passion and determination, that doesn’t mean we like seeing the pros get screwed over just because they can be.
