« IPW TOPIC OF THE WEEK: How do you feel about Fighting Games becoming an eSport? »

We've seen a lot of change in the Fighting Game Community over the past few years here, one of the biggest being sponsorships and fighting games moving towards a lot of trends that other games -- such as Starcraft and First Person Shooters -- have experienced for a long time now. Glancing at recent tournament results, it's hard to look past the fact that most of top 8, and almost always top 3, at tournaments are sponsored players these days.

Most will probably agree that this is just the beginning for this type of movement, with fighting games being played side by side with other games at major events  such as Dreamhack and MLG (Tekken 6) just to name a few. Generally this type of presentation and organization is referred to as "eSports" or "Competitive Gaming".

As a player, or even just a casual spectator, how do you feel about this movement? Do you feel this is the direction fighting games need to go or is the scene just far to different from the others to put them all under the same banner?

Do you feel that sponsored players are what the scene needs to help get our top talent to more events and generate more hype and exposure for the scene? Some have argued that this simply creates a divide between players and feel that is not what the community is all about, mentioning that all players should have to go through the same struggle to attend major tournaments and events. 

How about the events themsevles? Would you like to see fighting game events at massive, stadium seating venues or do you prefer the gritty vibe of playing casuals in Room 203, and heading down to the ballroom of the hotel whenever you'd like?

Keep in mind that as far as tournaments go, fighting games are leading the way when it comes to player turn out and attendance. Taking that into consideration, should our community be leading the way or should we simply embrace the same standards of other competitive gaming outlets?

As you can see, this is a loaded question, and this movement affects even more than just what is mentioned above, such as commentary and even the payout at these events. If you're new to this concept of eSports, and want a bit of reference, you can check out my thoughts in a recent interview I did with ESFIworld.com.  I've embedded the latest episode of LiveOn3 with djWheat and Slasher who touch many of the same topics as well.