The FGC is willing to gatekeep its esports scene, even if it means staying broke

Popular streamer Tyler “Tyler1” Steinkamp, largely known for being good at League of Legends and being loud, announced that he was going to compete in Street Fighter 6 again, starting with Evo. And the FGC is angry.

On stream, Tyler1 announced that he was going to Evo in Las Vegas (which he had to define to his followers, who apparently didn’t know what it was). During the Open Qualifiers, Tyler1 is competing against Ludwig Ahgren in a showmatch, another non-Street Fighter 6 player.

“Let’s not forget. I only played Street Fighter for one month, and I got to 1550. Legitimately,” Ludwig said. He will also be getting coaching ahead of Evo.

However, this statement didn’t impress the FGC. Instead, it pointed out that he has barely played the game. And if there is one thing the FGC doesn’t like, it’s tourists.

The FGC is often in a strange spot. It started out in the dingy arcades of the 1980s, just the sweatiest of sweats huddled in the dark. For decades, the FGC never really transformed into stadium esports titles. These were tournaments in people’s homes or through individual tournament organizers using their own money. The prize pools were crowdfunded.

These were players who lived fighting games. They barely saw any money. They didn’t see fame. They competed for years just to defeat rivals, to improve, because they loved the game. To this day, fighting games are much smaller than other titles, with Super Smash Bros. still not supported by Nintendo, and games like Guilty Gear -Strive- getting no attention outside dedicated fans and competitors.

Street Fighter 6 has sorta broken free of this underground vibe. With Capcom’s support, Street Fighter 6 has seen structured circuits and $1 million prizes. However, Capcom’s attempt to grow the scene beyond the passionate FGC has backfired.

First, the pay-per-view format. While it worked in Japan, the fighting game fans in Europe and America were outraged at the idea of paying even $10 to watch a tournament. Most said the hype surrounding Capcom Cup 12 had completely died. Nobody cared who won anymore. While some argued that Capcom was just trying to make some money, others felt Capcom was snubbing the loyal community and passionate streamers by doing so.

Now, Tyler1 has been invited to Evo to do a showmatch, a streamer with over 5.5 million followers. The response from the FGC has been largely negative. Many pointed out that “Saudi Arabia paid him to go” rather than Tyler1 attending out of his own passion for the game. Others said they don’t even know who he is while others pointed out that he was banned from League of Legends for being toxic in the past.

Added one FGC player: “I’ll care if he makes it out of pools.”

However, some in the FGC began questioning the negativity surrounding Tyler1’s showcase match. It seemed like the FGC was just being “gatekeepy” and sabotaging yet another chance at growing the scene.

“The FGC really is the dumbest gaming community at times,” said one gamer on Reddit. “They do nothing but gatekeep the expansion of the genre through organic means like Tyler1. Then they complain when the companies that make their games shut them down or sell out to Saudi money.”

However, the FGC is very selective with who gets to represent their games. They’d rather the scene get shut down than have some “poser” stream their game to thousands of viewers.

Said one FGC player: “Not everyone knows him from League. I, for one, had never heard of him until I saw a clip of him a few months ago. The clip? It was him playing SF6 and calling everyone who enjoys fighting games a retard. Next thing I know, the only clips I’m seeing are of him raging on SF6 and blocking opponents every time he loses.”

While being annoying is all part of Tyler1’s schtick, it’s just not something a lot of FGC want associated with the game. A scene fueled by passion, grinding, grit, and determination doesn’t really want to let in a bunch of Tyler1 fans who may also find it funny to rage-bait people in-game. When your scene is small, you do sometimes want to protect it. You don’t want it to change, especially for the worse.

Even a single toxic stream from Tyler1 could reshape the entire community and tournament vibes.

But hey, Tyler1 did say he was getting coaching. I say wait and see how he acts at Evo. See if he has changed. See if he embodies the passion and grit of the FGC. See if it brings in more people and money without changing what’s special about the Street Fighter 6 scene. It’s definitely possible.

Or he could just rage on-stage for views. Also possible.

“I’m glad Tyler1 is back on Street Fighter, but having two e-celebs who may as well be complete nobodies in the fighting game scene do a MAIN STAGE SHOW MATCH at F***ING EVO is really weird. We’re going to have two noobs, from unrelated corners of the internet, noobing it up on the MAIN STAGE OF EVO as an EVO event,” pointed out one FGC player.

And there lies the issue. Tyler1 can play Street Fighter all he wants. And he can attend Evo. But putting him up on the stage when he barely plays… That feels like an insult to the players who have been grinding. To the top players and FGC streamers who bleed fighting games.

But I guess that’s the new Evo MO: Attention over passion. Views over authenticity. So much for the claims made when RTS purchased Evo.

“We’re going to continue investing in the things that matter to our community, elevating and empowering members of the FGC and working diligently with our game developer partners to ensure that Evo benefits all involved parties,” they stated at the time.

Is it “elevating and empowering members of the FGC” to promote Tyler1 rather than a Street Fighter 6 pro or streamer? I’d say no. Luckily, you can ignore the showmatch and just watch other people compete. That is probably the play, since it’s not like you can really stop Evo from trying to rapidly expand.

That grungy arcade vibe is gone, but the passion isn’t.