History of Red Bull Kumite Pt. 1 | Birth of THE Street Fighter Invitational

► Red Bull Kumite goes live from Las Vegas Nov. 13-14: The fighting game community (or FGC) follows a different set of rules. Not out of some obligation to buck the status quo, but the opposite. The community’s ability to maintain tradition and keep to its core tenet of “competition for all“ is stuff of legend, unshaken by the changing times, technology, and trends that have come and gone since its birth in the arcade era. It is the last true stalwart of the kind of open competition that esports and sports alike can only dream of. Despite its invitational nature, The FGC has embraced Red Bull Kumite as it would any of the other grassroots tournaments that have proven themselves valuable to the ecosystem of fighting games. And that’s because, at its core, Red Bull Kumite is a showcase of the best players in the world, a spectacle of the best the FGC has to offer, made even more complete with high production values that can rival television broadcasts. As it has evolved, however, it ha