Most Street Fighter fans knew that the Capcom Pro Tour would be a big deal in 2016. On Tuesday night, they learned that the tour would be four big deals.
Street Fighter V associate producer Peter “Combofiend” Rosas announced major changes for the Capcom Pro Tour on Tuesday night with the reveal of the 2016 tour schedule. The biggest change for this season is that the majority of the tour will be divided into four regions; North America, Latin America, Europe, and Asia
The changes were leaked by Red Bull Esports just before the start of the announcement.
Like last year, players will hope to qualify for the season-ending Capcom Cup. Thirty-two players will compete for a share of a $250,000 prize pool. Much like last year, 16 players will qualify directly to the event by winning designated tour events, and 16 others will gain a spot by earning points throughout the year.
Twelve events will serve Global Premier events. Like in previous years, the winners of these events will qualify directly to Capcom Cup. Unlike previous years, the Capcom Cup berth will not drop to the second-, third-, or fourth-place finisher if the winner has already qualified. Instead, an additional player will qualify through points on the global leaderboard.
Each of the four regions will host 12 ranking events and two online tournaments. These events will award points that count towards both the global and regional leaderboards. For example, a player who earns 64 points at a North American event and 32 points at a European event will have 64 points on the North American leaderboard, 32 points on the European leaderboard, and 96 points on the global leaderboard.
Each region will also have a regional final. These 16-player fields will be comprised of one qualifier from each of the ranking and online events in the region and two players who will qualify through last chance qualifiers held the day before the event. One player from each regional final—four in all—will qualify for Capcom Cup.
The final 16 spots in Capcom Cup will be awarded via points. Eight of these spots will be awarded through the global leaderboard. The other eight will be awarded through the four regional leaderboards, with two players qualifying from each region.
In all, the tour will feature 72 events: 12 Global Premier events, 48 Ranking events, eight online events, and four regional finals.
The tour will begin in Cannes, France for the second straight year. Cannes Winter Clash will kick off the 2016 season on Feb. 26, just 10 days after the release of Street Fighter V. Atlanta’s Final Round 19, the season’s first Global Premier event and second event overall, will begin on March 18.
Once the action starts at Final Round, it will continue throughout the year. If the current schedule remains in place, there will only be two weekends without a Capcom Pro Tour event between Final Round and Canada Cup on the weekend before Halloween. This could be reduced to one or even zero CPT-less weekends, as 12 of the tour’s events have either not been named or have not finalized a date. Dates for the online tournaments and regional finals will be announced at a later time.
Rosas also announced that Capcom will provide $15,000 pot bonuses for all of the Global Premier events with the exception of Evo, which will receive a $50,000 pot bonus. Like previous tours, Evo will distribute times as many points as other Global Premier events.
The full list of events can be found below:
GLOBAL PREMIER EVENTS (Winners qualify for Capcom Cup)
- Final Round (Atlanta, GA – March 18 – 20)
- NorCal Regionals (Sacramento, CA – March 25 – 27)
- Stunfest (Rennes, FRA – May 20 – 22)
- Dreamhack Summer 2016 (Jönköping, SWE – June 18 – 21)
- CEO (Orlando, FL – June 24 – 26)
- G-League (China – July 9)
- Evo (Las Vegas, NV – July 15 – 17)
- MadCatz Tokyo Game Show (Tokyo, JPN – September 15)
- EGX (London, UK – September 22 – 25)
- South East Asia Major (Singapore – October 7 – 9)
- SoCal Regionals (Los Angeles, CA area – October 14 – 16)
- Canada Cup (Toronto, CA – October 28 – 30)
NORTH AMERICAN EVENTS
- West Coast Warzone (Los Angeles, CA – April 15 – 17)
- Texas Showdown (Houston, TX – April 22 – 24)
- Northwest Majors (Des Moines, WA – April 29 – May 1)
- Dreamhack Austin (Austin, TX – May 6 – 8)
- Toryuken (Toronto, CAN – May 21 – 22)
- Combo Breaker (St. Charles, IL – May 27 – 29)
- Defend the North (New York City, NY – July 29 – 31)
- Summer Jam (Philadelphia, PA area – August 19 – 21)
- Absolute Battle (Dallas, TX – August 26 – 28)
- East Coast Throwdown (Secaucus, NJ – September 3 – 4)
- First Attack (San Juan, PR – September 9 – 11)
- The Fall Classic (Charlotte, NC area – Date TBA)
- Online Event #1 (Date TBA)
- Online Event #2 (Date TBA)
- CPT North America Final (Location and date TBA)
LATIN AMERICAN EVENTS
- Fighting Fest (Santo Domingo, DOM – April 2 – 3)
- JAM Festival (Brasilia, BRA – April 9 – 10)
- Lima Salty 3 (Lima, PER – May 20 – 22)
- Japonawa (Tijuana, MEX – May 28 – 29)
- The Fight 2016 (Bogota, COL – June 5)
- SANA 2016 (Rio de Janeiro, BRA – July 15 – 17)
- True Challengers (San Jose, CRC – Date TBA)
- Never Give Up (Santiago, CHL – September 10)
- GRT (BRA, Date TBA)
- Thunderstruck (Monterrey, MEX – Date TBA)
- Geek Lounge (Buenos Aires, ARG – Date TBA)
- Brazil event TBA
- Online Event #1 (Date TBA)
- Online Event #2 (Date TBA)
- CPT Latin America Final (Location and date TBA)
EUROPEAN EVENTS
- Cannes Winter Clash (Cannes, FRA – February 26 – 28)
- Hypespotting V (Glasgow, UK – April 2 – 3)
- FrogByte (Pordenone, ITA – April 23 – 24)
- FFM Rumble #9 (Frankfurt, GER – May 27 – 29)
- Moscow Fighting Arena 2016 (Moscow, RUS – June 11 – 13)
- Sonic Boom Summer Edition 2016 (Madrid, ESP – July 2 – 3)
- VSFighting 2016 (Birmingham, UK – August 6 – 7)
- Celtic Throwdown 2016 (Dublin, IRE – September 3 – 4)
- GAMES ‘16 (Dubai, UAE – Sept. 22 – 24)
- Fighting Games Challenge (Lodz, POL – Oct. 1 – 2)
- Europe event TBA
- Europe event TBA
- Online Event #1 (Date TBA)
- Online Event #2 (Date TBA)
- CPT Europe Final (Location and date TBA)
ASIAN EVENTS
- Battle Arena Melbourne (Melbourne, AUS – May 13 – 15)
- Ze Fighting Game Championship (Chengdu, CHN – May 28 – 29)
- Yangcheng Cup (Guangzhou, CHN – August 13 – 14)
- Cyber Games Arena (Hong Kong, August 20)
- OzHadou Nationals 14 (Australian city TBA – August 26 – 28)
- Manila Cup (Manila, PHL – September 10 – 11)
- Abuget Cup (Jakarta, IDN – October 1)
- FV Cup (Kuala Lumpur, MAS – October 22)
- Thaiger Uppercut (Bangkok, THA – Date TBA)
- Thailand event TBA
- Japan event TBA
- Japan event TBA
- Online Event #1 (Date TBA)
- Online Event #2 (Date TBA)
- CPT Asia Final (Location and date TBA)
Update Feb. 10 2016: Additional information about Evo’s point distribution has been added.
