Full Bar Live #2 gives DFW area gamers a chance to play games, make friends, and strut their stuff.
When esports emerged onto the scene, there was no internet that could carry multitudes of people in a server, or a way for friends to game together from their houses across the country. Everything was localized, so competitors were showing off their talents for gaming with the other person sitting right next to them. Or in the cases of arcade gaming, standing side by side at a cabinet with joysticks, buttons, and a monitor with a pixelated screen.
According to ISPO.com, arcades were established in the 1970s, with the early 1980s offering the first types of competition thanks to high score lists for games like Asteroids and Space Invaders. But in 1991, Street Fighter II made its way to North American arcades, and the excitement of a one on one fighter launched the fighting game community, with games like Mortal Kombat following suit, according to The Guardian’s history on fighting games. People were flocking to arcades to play against each other side-by-side for bragging rights.
In 1996, at an arcade in Southern California, brothers Tom and Tony Cannon created Battle by the Bay, a tournament for Street Fighter players that was born out of the local fighting game community and message boards on the early days of the internet. According to an interview they did with VG247.com, Battle by the Bay was a “put up or shut up” event for everyone claiming to be the best online. This event eventually grew into what is now known as Evolution Championships, or EVO.
EVO was the place that members of the fighting game community wanted to be at. It was well known in the local scene, but didn’t reach a nationally known level till 2004, with what many call “The Daigo Parry,” also known as “EVO Moment 37.” Videos of tournaments were just starting to hit the internet, and when this video was uploaded it took the gaming world, especially the fighting game community, by storm. In a match between Daigo Umehara and Justin Wong, Wong had Umehara all but defeated, unleashing his character Chun-Li’s super move on Umehara’s Ken for the final blow. But Umehara managed to parry – or block – this move for the entire combo, then used Ken’s super move to win the match. It was a move that was almost impossible to counter, and Umehara managed to do it.
And that’s when Matthew Martin, the founder of Full Bar Esports, took notice. “I never knew there was a (fighting game) scene till I hit college. The tournament scene was new and fresh to me,” says Martin. “What motivated me, and I think it motivated everyone else was the Daigo moment of EVO when he did all the parries against Justin Wong,”
After years of playing in the tournament scene, Martin realized that the community is what really drove him to play. So, during the days of COVID when players were shut in their homes, Martin created Full Bar Esports as a way to bring together gamers in the state of Texas by holding online tournaments for Street Fighter V. “The first online tournament we had 20 people show up, and now we’re reaching into the 30s and 40s,” Martin says.
As COVID regulations started to relax in 2022, Martin decided to try his hand at an in-person tournament that was held at the Denton Convention Center in Denton, Texas. “It was a huge success,” Martin says. “We had 125 people show up.” Gamers were excited to be back in a setting that allowed them to play in person, solidifying that the fighting game community was just that; a community of players who wanted to compete side by side to show who was the best.
Full Bar Live #2 was held on Oct. 6-8 in Fort Worth, Texas, and saw about 85 people who participated in a variety of games, including Tekken 7, Guilty Gear: Strive, Ultimate Marvel vs Capcom 3, and even newer titles like Street Fighter VI and Mortal Kombat 1. For Martin, hosting fighting game tournaments is his passion and a way to give back to the community that he considers family. “These people here, they’re not numbers to me. They’re people,” Martin says. “I want to give them a place where they can just have fun.”
While games like Counter-Strike and Halo may have gotten their start in local events, they’ve since transitioned into the biggest stages, with a lot of the local scene forgotten. But the fighting game community still holds their local events in high regard, with games like Super Smash Brothers holding tournaments every week in some areas. These locals will always be a way for the fighting game community to thrive, as long as people like Martin keep their spirit alive.
For more information on Full Bar Esports, visit their X (formally known as Twitter) at FullbareS.
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