Author: Tom Anderson

CouchWarriors League Schedule Update: October Ranbats, Adelaide Mini-Major Announced!

October Event Calendar

A new month in the CouchWarriors League brings fresh opportunities to score ranking points in your favourite games. Here are the dates and sign-up links for all our October ranbats and CWL Online events – plus, a new mini-major presented by CouchWarriors SA!

Remember, you can have event information emailed to you every month by subscribing to our newsletter! You can also send us your highlights, photos and stream links – help us share your favourite tournament moments with the rest of the AUS FGC!

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GG:Strive Joins CWL Online With First Interstate Showdown

When we write fighting game history, 2021 is going to go down as the Year of Gear. The bold presentation and fortuitous timing of Guilty Gear: Strive has brought the hard-rocking franchise from the fringe of the FGC into the mainstream. And the willingness of Arc System Works to remodel some aspects of the core system has invited many new Guilty Gear players to make Strive their entry point, mixing it up with anime veterans on more even footing. 

With all that momentum it was inevitable that GG:ST would make it onto the CouchWarriors League circuit as our newest featured title. Last month’s Battle Arena Nightclub was the first opportunity for players to pick up ranking points on the Strive leaderboard. But even that clash of Melbourne’s finest turned out to just be an appetizer for August’s CWL Online event – the first real chance to see who could stand supreme in this new game at the national level.

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#BANC – Battle Arena NightClub Interviews & Recap

Sunday, July 11th saw a year of pent-up competitive energy unleashed from a highly unusual venue. Inflation Nightclub and Entertainment Complex has been a party fixture on Melbourne’s King Street for decades, but they’d never seen anything quite like the crowd of 240+ FGC diehards hollering over the noise of the venue to celebrate a knockout blow. 

 

BANC2021 in full swing

With a brief window to take advantage of lowered COVID restrictions but no way to facilitate a full-sized major, an event was planned to carry on the spirit of BAM in the best available venue, and thus we got to enjoy #BANC – Battle Arena Nightclub 2021.

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CouchWarriors League Recap – May 2021

The fires of competition have burned more brightly than ever before across the CouchWarriors League, as we count down the days before the long-awaited BAM12 major. The month of May set a new all-time record for most ranking points on offer, impacting the race across all five CWL games.

In the past, the league rankings have often been dominated by a handful of regional champions who can reliably scoop their local tournament every time – but 2021 is looking different. Not only have we seen a few instances of top players traveling interstate to play spoiler for one event, but almost every game and region is seeing a more even spread of winners as the months roll on. It’s been the perfect way to foreshadow the inevitable clash for bragging rights we’ll see at BAM.

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BAM12 Registration Roundup!

Get hype! The biggest AusFGC news of the year is the biggest AusFGC event of the year: BAM 2021.

Battle Arena Melbourne is making its comeback in 2021. Held from July 9th-11th, #BAM12 will feature the peak of competitive play for fighting games across Australia as part of the CouchWarriors League, as well as a rare chance for our top talent to battle world-class opposition. Expanding the gaming on offer, alongside BAM will be ITZ Gaming PC LAN (more on that below)!

BAM’s status as Australia’s top Major on the official circuits brings together players and broadcasters from all sorts of games, and CouchWarriors are going in even harder on that big-tent ethos with this year’s event. Whether you count yourself among the hardcore competitors, niche game specialists, casual fans, artists, cosplayers, or game developers, #BAM12 has something to offer.

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CouchWarriors League 2021 – The Season So Far!

Get ready for the next battle – because CouchWarriors League is back for 2021!

Rising from the ashes of last year like a wakeup shoryu, Australia’s first unified fighting game circuit has begun a fresh season, now with more games and more events to compete in!

With monthly ranbat events in four state centers and the revamped CouchWarriors Online Series, there’s a huge expansion in the amount of season points available – which seems destined to produce a much tighter title race in each of the five featured fighting games.

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CWL November Report – Melee & Tekken

The pivotal final month of Saturday online events for CouchWarriors League 2020 has delivered a barrage of top-flight competition, with three games having concluded their ranking seasons so far. The last two weekends were a study in contrasts; Smash Melee was reduced to a victory lap for an unstoppable champion, while Tekken 7’s overall season winner wasn’t decided until the very last blow!

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CWL November Report – SFV

This strange, abbreviated but intense 14-event season of CouchWarriors League SFV came to a head on Saturday with the final CWL Online for the year. Doubled ranking points meant stakes were high, with the ladderboard leaders desperately holding onto the cash bounties attached to their top 3 spots. Even those well outside the top 3 were playing for keeps, since reaching the Grand Final here would be enough to earn another shot at the money in next month’s Season Finale. The competition has been fierce all year long, but now the finals atmosphere was palpable as players busted out pocket picks and some elite ringers showed up to snare qualification.

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CWL October Report – Smash Ultimate

Another weekend has passed, and the last CWL Online event for the month is in the books. With only one more event left on the schedule for each game, October represented the last real chance for any new names to show up and make a tilt at qualification for the Season Finale. Players whose qualification was already locked in were still there at full force as they battled tooth and nail for top placegetter payouts.

This weekend also saw a bit of league rules weirdness, as players in the South Australian scene seemed like they might have grabbed an extra chance at those prizes. Capitalizing on their relative freedom from COVID-19, the locals took this chance to finally restart their “Cheese League” ranbat series, which in an ideal season would have been the main way for SA players to earn their CWL points. 

While it’s a terrific sign that we have players getting back into offline play, CouchWarriors quickly clarified that there were no extra points suddenly up for grabs as a result – to be fair to players in other states, it would still be CWL Online or bust!

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