The Online and Offline FGC Should Support and Reinforce Each Other.
The year is 2020. Everything's closed, you're bored, and you don't know what to do with yourself. You like fighting games, but your local was put on hold in reaction to COVID-19. Maybe you've already heard of Fightcade, or maybe you learned about it from a friend or your favorite streamer. Hundreds of fighting game, online, for free? How could you turn that down? The other option is to give up your hobby completely.
The year is 2026. Street Fighter: The Movie wasn't really your thing, Karnov's Revenge is a distant memory. The idea of anyone competing in a game like Samurai Shodown 3 or Jackie Chan in Fists of Fire makes you a bit sick.
Online fighting games are dead. But they don't have to be. With advances in netplay, we have Duckstation rollback (2023), bsnes rollback (2025-2026), and even MAME rollback through Arkadyzja (2025). You can play Fighting Layer with rollback online, people should be all over this!
Maybe this is just a perspective issue for me, as someone who only got into fgs in 2019. I got a brief taste of what offline was like with Combo Breaker 2019, still an all-timer event (easily in my personal Top 5). To me, online fighting games are the ultimate realization of what makes fighting games special: People from all over the world are playing this shit. I still think this is true, but there's a lot of apprehension people have when it comes to online fighting games. For one, you're not having as much fun playing people as you are face-to-face, right? Especially when it's someone you don't know. I just think that expecting, or much less comparing the offline and online exepreince so directly, makes no sense.
Online is a good place to test stuff out without the pressure of making it "worth your time". You don't have to travel and cut out your whole day for it, and you don't have to pay to enter a bracket you might go 0-2 in. If you want to run the set on some obscure SNES, PS1, etc. fighting game with a friend, that's what online is great for.
There are a lot of games I like that have not made the jump to offline. I want you to take a minute to think about older fighting games, more than 10 years in the past, stuff you won't find at EVO. What are people playing offline that fits the bill, and are they at your local? You're probably thinking of games like Vampire Savior, Super Street Fighter II Turbo, Capcom vs SNK 2, Marvel vs Capcom 2, or maybe Melty Blood: Actress Again Current Code, Guilty Gear Xrd, or something else. Even games like these feel like a rare privilege to see offline. We have ST here maybe a few times a year, but that's just not often enough for me to learn the game, to feel confident in what I'm doing.
If I want to feel good playing ST in tournament, I need to practice online. If I want to play something new and interesting, if I find a game I think has potential, I have to play it online first. Games like Fatal Fury Special, Cyberbots, Bloody Roar 2, Ehrgeiz, and more, these are the games I know people play and love, but would have a hard time convincing people to play at locals.
Despite all that, I love learning about what people are up to at their locals and regionals. Over the last couple weeks in the Sailor Moon S discord, people have been playing Fighting Masters, a quirky two-button Sega Genesis kusoge (don't argue with me on this) with 12 characters, no mirror matches, and several inescapable throw loops. Then they (NEHAFFGs, New England Hype AF Fighting Games, the premiere Tournament Organizers for Sailor Moon S) ran Fighting Masters at their local hosted at internet cafe Balance Patch. I think there's little as heartwarming as seeing people come together and have fun with some bullshit like that. There are a lot of games I think have potential, that scream to be explored. But I don't think they make it offline just like that, the same way cold-calling doesn't get you a job. You gotta test it out online.
I also love learning about local arcades. I obviously follow a bunch of arcades, like Mikado, Game Newton, NakanoTRF, and more. I get why some people, especially in the US or Canada would be despondent about this - I'll never play those games with my friends, they'll never have arcades over here - but my eyes light up every time I see a game I know on there. People are playing and exploring this game just like me, and I can learn a lot.
A couple months ago, I designed a poster for Gorillas in the MiSTer, a dedicated retro fighting game event hosted in Norman, Oklamhoma. I live in the Toronto area, far away from OK. I don't think there's any realistic chance I could make it out to the event, but I don't care. It fills me with joy seeing the games I've played - that I've made some real effort to put people on - are being enjoyed by someone out there. I would absolutely crush it at any of the games, though. Asuka 120% LimitOver, Sailor Moon S, and Fatal Fury Special are all my jam.
Even earlier than that, in January 2026, I was part of 956 Productions, the team behind Vortex Gallery. For the first time, I was truly, deeply involved in an offline event which I gave my all and got paid for. How the hell did I even get involved in this? I met Shiburizu online playing games like Samsho 3, Karnov's Revenge, and Real Bout Fatal Fury with a friend group that's not all together any more. I wouldn't trade that for the world.
Ultimately, the online and offline fighting game community are connected to each other. I think people in both spaces should care about the other, as it undeniably gets new blood into the scene. In a world where EVO wants to be the fighting game tournament, I think it's more important to show a little support to people and events outside your wheelhouse. That's what keeps us going, what keeps me going.