Opportunity to Build/Rebuild the Virtua Fighter Scene

With a new Virtua Fighter title coming out potentially very soon, I think as a community we should look at this as an opportunity to build or rebuild our local scenes. For everyone who's ever said they wished we had a bigger community or more players, this is a golden chance for us to make it happen. Sega has passed us the ball by releasing a new title after all these years, and it's up to us to not squander the opportunity!

I want to share some ideas and start a conversation on how we can either build or re-build a scene for the series, and ensure it lasts as long as possible!



What has worked in my experience in Australian and Canada;

Bring the game to locals!

This is probably the most important one that I can't stress enough. Chances are there is a local scene within distance of yourself. I also would wager that there's usually at least one other person in that scene or area that would love to play Virtua Fighter.

Sometimes all it takes is one person to let the group know that they'd like to play, and most importantly, that they'll bring a set up with the game!

You can't rely on the organisers to do it for you, just bringing a console and the game will work wonders. People will sit down and try the game, and be thankful that someone brought it so they have the opportunity.

Obviously this isn't possible for everyone, and of course not everyone wants to play offline. But where it is applicable I encourage you to look up to see if there's a fighting game community near you and then get in touch with some people and ask about bringing a setup with Virtua Fighter. Give the group some notice that you plan to bring it and play, and if at first you don't succeed... try, try again! It took me several attempts to get a few players coming on a regular basis at Toronto. Don't be disheartened, often people can't make it for legitimate reasons and schedule clashes, but if you keep it up consistently, you WILL find traction and get a regular group.





Volunteer to DIY the game at Majors

Similar to above, chances are there is a major within a short travel distance of yourself at some point in the year. People will travel to it from all over the country (and even internationally) to play their favourite fighting games.

All it takes is a Virtua Fighter fan to offer to run Virtua Fighter as a side-tournament to get it off the ground. We saw it happen in Canada, Australia and USA. When the community offered to run the game as a side tournament, it was always met with open arms from the greater FGC and tournament organisers. Similar to the above scenario, there are probably many players already attending that would want to enter a Virtua Fighter tournament, and all it takes is for someone to arrange a sign-up page and some consoles.

Don't rely on the event organisers themselves to do it, they often have more than enough work they can handle with the 'main' games that are backed by big corporate money or guaranteed to draw big viewers and attendees. As a relatively niche game, we need to help ourselves.

The good news is, it isn't hard to bring a setup or two and arrange some other VF players from the community to help you run a bracket. The more we show we can run and be self-reliant, the more tournaments and events we'll see for our beloved series.






Establish a regular online night/times

Especially now, with the ongoing pandemic around the world, online play is important, and a super low barrier for entry. Not since 2012 have we had an opportunity to run the game on such an easily accessible and widely available platform!

While early days will mean we can find players randomly online at most times, almost every fighting game doesn't experience this nirvana for long. What helps keep a game alive and keep a community engaged is organising a regular day and time for online games. It doesn't have to be a 'tournament' or even streamed, just so long as people keen to play the game can know that once a week at least, there will be players online for them to play with and enjoy the game with.

We've seen this work with Blitzball's VF Arena, the Virtua Revival Nights, and Hotdogs & Sake club regular online sessions.




I hope that we can really make the game last, and create an ongoing and solid scene in more places around the world. We already have some really strong and well established Virtua Fighter communities all over, but there's still lots of potential to grow! I know that others have done this already, so please share some thoughts or any tips that you might have to help us all take advantage of this opportunity with a shiny new game to sink our teeth into!

 

As @b4k4 and @RayBlade mentioned, the best bet is just to ask them if you can bring the setup and or run an event

Tournament Organisers will look after either the most popular games (Street Fighter, Tekken) or the ones they personally love (whatever else). They have a lot of 'admin' work to do and can't often dedicate time to more than a small handful of titles.

The best bet is just to get in touch and bring Virtua Fighter yourself. If you're not confident in running a tournament yet, you can even just say you're bringing it for casual play and to build some playerbase etc. Just having the game there makes a big difference and 99% of the time the organisers are happy for you to bring whatever game you like.

As I mentioned in the OP, that's how we started in Sydney and Toronto, just bringing the console and game and having it there consistently. Before long you'll realise there are many like yourself who are waiting for the chance to play!