“Fighting games are a language”: The FGC has been bringing countries together far before the World Cup

If you’re anything like me (chronically online, spend too much time scrolling TikTok), you’ve probably seen tons of videos over the past few weeks of World Cup fans from Europe, Japan, Korea, and Mexico flooding various cities in the United States to watch the matches.

It’s one of those rare, wholesome moments that you barely see on the internet these days, with people of all races and cultures getting along, and Europeans finally realizing that all the propaganda they heard about America is false. Seeing British people’s eyes light up when they taste food with flavor for once has also been pretty entertaining, and a break from the usual doom-scrolling.

But I couldn’t help but notice something in the comments because I’m a downer who likes to be overly critical, as you can probably tell by now. I saw a lot of people saying that this is some groundbreaking moment in history that has finally allowed humans to connect, learn, and grow together.

And I thought: “Nuh-uh! Esports has been doing this for ages. Especially the FGC.”

Obviously, the World Cup is a mainstream, worldwide event that has a much larger audience than esports could ever dream of. It’s no surprise that the “normies” out there think this whole “cultures clashing at tournaments” thing is a novel experience. I don’t expect them to know about some random Tekken tourney in Japan.

But I think it’s cool that the FGC has been doing this for decades without any recognition. It wasn’t for internet clout or TikTok attention. It was just an authentic gathering of like-minded nerds that didn’t care about race or nationality. They just wanted to win.

What started as grudge matches at grungy arcades grew to fighting game tournaments by the 1990s. One of the earliest notable tourneys was Battle By the Bay, held in California in 1996 by the organization that later started Evo. It featured 40 competitors across a variety of arcade games, including Alex Valle and John Choi. And there were no cash prizes. It was all for the love of the game.

Decades later, the FGC hasn’t really changed all that much. The prize pools are generally lower than in other esports scenes, but their passion has remained just as strong. In fact, fighting game competitors will travel across the world to compete, even if they only have a chance at a few thousand bucks. You’ll casually see players from Japan competing at Super Smash Bros. tourneys throughout the year, willing to fly 10-plus hours just in hopes of winning $500.

They aren’t there for money. They’re there for Smash. It’s a lifestyle. It’s a passion. It’s a niche community you feel almost obligated to keep supporting and representing.

Knowing you’re at an event with other sorta unhinged people willing to fly to another country just because they love a game… That’s something not many outside the FGC will understand.

“Evo is a global celebration of the whole fighting genre,” Evo founder  Joey “Mr. Wizard” Cuellar told ESPN back in 2016. “We see ourselves as a great complement to the circuits, which focus on one game. Competitors from 85 different countries come out to compete at Evo. When you have an event that caters to almost all sections of the fighting game community, it’s special.”

To fighting game pros, these tournaments feel like the promised land. No matter where the tournament is, that’s where they need to be if they want to chase glory, defeat rivals, prove their skill, and be the best. It’s not even all that intimidating to go somewhere you’ve never been, since everyone at the tournament is there for the same thing. And you may have already been interacting with the other competitors before landing there.

Unlike soccer (or football), video games can connect people from all over the world. Before heading to these tournaments, the pros are grinding against one another in online matches. Fans are watching pro players from tons of different countries stream matches online. This has created a sense of togetherness before the travel even starts.

I asked Evo champion Leonardo “MenaRD” Mena II why he thinks the FGC has been such a cultural melting pot for decades ahead of the World Cup.

He told me: “It’s because of online play. You already experience all cultures through online play; you’re competing against people you don’t even know. You judge them based on skill alone. That’s why we are already used to it when we go to tournaments. You’re already dealing with all these different people.”

This makes the community feel extremely familiar, even if you’re heading to Paris, Tokyo, or Las Vegas. You may not even know the language, but you know the game.

“Fighting games are like a language. You can pick it up and play. You can cross barriers,” Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves Producer Shinya Tamaki told Esports Insider. “You can communicate with different cultures [through the game]. Every country has a different playstyle. You learn about the world and how other people play.”

Tekken 8 GOAT Arslan Ash has experienced this firsthand. He told me that he originally only competed against other players in Pakistan. It was the only scene he knew when he started. But as he became more established in the scene, he noticed how other countries played as well, particularly Japan, European countries, and the United States. He decided to learn English and Japanese, and become more familiar with other cultures.

“I made friends all over,” he said.

Fighting games can create those kinds of authentic moments and connections. This is because they are a universal phenomenon. While fighting games are niche compared to games like League of Legends and Counter-Strike 2, there are still people playing all over the world. There are local scenes everywhere.

Arslan Ash pointed out that cricket is a popular sport in Pakistan but not in many other countries. Meanwhile, “gaming is international. Anyone can play the game. Anywhere you go in the world, you can find Tekken players. Gaming is more popular than sports. It’s more accessible.”

I’m not too sure gaming is more popular than sports, especially when comparing the size of fighting game tournaments to soccer matches. But I get what he is saying. The community feels bigger because everyone is connected. They are playing together online. They’re in the same forums. They’re following the same pros on X. They’re traveling to tournaments across the world in hopes of qualifying for championships and majors.

Unlike sports, these fighting game tourneys are open to everyone. You could sit down with a local newbie or a competitor from across the globe. The brackets are open. There are no national leagues like soccer or League of Legends. This kind of cross-cultural interaction throughout the season is pretty unheard of in other scenes.

You can sit down with a random person and play a friendly or bracket match, but they feel so familiar. This is someone who shares your passion for fighting games. Being such a niche interest that values authenticity, you just have an unspoken bond with another person who traveled across the world just to play in a tournament. Even knowing you’ll both lose well before the Top 24.

“I can be playing video games downstairs,” recalled Fatal Fury Director Hayato Konya at Evo Las Vegas, “and someone can sit next to me. We don’t speak the same language. But we play together and communicate that way. That can lead to a lot of relationship building with tons of people.

“Let’s do that again sometime. Let’s get a coffee. Let’s hang out. It fosters a community. It’s an interesting tool.”

For fighting game players, going to the United States and getting a soda refill or heading to Japan to play darts at an arcade are not novel experiences. They aren’t TikTok-worthy moments. These are genuine experiences. Being immersed in so many different cultures is just part of competing in the FGC.

“I feel FGC has always been a melting pot of different cultures. It doesn’t really matter your background and who you are,” MenaRD said. “It’s about the game and sharing that moment and having a good time.”

Arslan Ash and MenaRD both moved to Japan to better focus on their esports careers. For Arslan Ash, this helped him learn more matchups ahead of international tournaments. But it also brought him out of his comfort zone.

“In Japan, I’m doing a lot of crazy things,” Arslan told me. “I’m always eating something weird. I ate this very tiny fish, and it had eyes. You cannot eat that just anywhere. I tasted that thing…”

Was it good?

“Nah… I ordered it accidentally. It was something crushed on top of my noodles. But I tried it.”

For top fighting game pros, other countries aren’t an exotic destination. They are home. It’s where they train, where they compete, where they learn matchups, and where they advance their career.

It all goes back to the 1990s, when fighting game tournaments began to appear. I hate to remind myself and other fighting game fans, but it’s been over 30 years of competing by now. These countries are so familiar to anyone invested in the scene. Traveling, seeing different cities, and sitting next to players who don’t speak the same language is just part of the FGC.

I asked MenaRD what he does when he travels for a fighting game event: “Mainly what I focus on is experiencing the city itself through food and history and the local scene. Sharing with the local community. Understanding where I am.”

It’s not about creating a viral moment on TikTok with a massive stack of pancakes or people dancing in the street. Those are wholesome, don’t get me wrong. But the fighting game scene doesn’t need to share these moments. They’re almost intimate. Like sharing your personal life. These countries aren’t novelties to people who have been connecting with other cultures for decades. These are their people.

Again, not poo-poo’ing on people’s obsession with World Cup videos. I get we all need some joy and whimsy right now. And watching a guy from the U.K. try to fly with bottles of ranch, which taste awful, is never going to fail to make me laugh. That Japanese guy on the mechanical bull? Peak.

But the true melting pot is video games, specifically the FGC. It’s not viral. It’s a lifestyle.