Battle Arena Melbourne RETURNS in 2023!

Get ready – the road to Oceania’s most celebrated fighting game tournament starts now.

CouchWarriors have publicly announced the 2023 installment of Battle Arena Melbourne, BAM13, for the weekend of June 9th-11th.

There are so many exciting details still to come: the tournament lineup, prize pool, sponsorships, World Tour support, international visitors, featured artists, afterparty venue… just make sure you save those dates, and stay tuned for more announcements!

CouchWarriors League 2023: Updated Points Structure & Schedule

CouchWarriors League is officially back for 2023, announcing a new format and points system for the Summer and Winter championship seasons.

The 2023 format emphasizes more local and community events while pivoting the CWL Online schedule from weekly to monthly tournaments. The points awarded at each state’s monthly ranbats have been doubled, making them an even more important battleground for our championship hopefuls.

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COUCHWARRIORS ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING 2022

Date: 27th of November. Time: 4pm.
Venue/Location: Brunswick Masonic Centre, 6 Davies St, Brunswick North VIC 3056.
“It’s time for the CouchWarriors Annual General Meeting!”

Annual General Meeting Structure: Our AGM is open to the public, if you feel like you would like to be a part of CouchWarriors, help out with tournaments and build up the fighting game community in Australia, please feel free to come along. Our scene is built on the passion and dedication of volunteers and organizers.

CouchWarriors Mission Statement: CouchWarriors is a not-for-profit association that was created in 2006 to help grow the Fighting Game Community. We aim to do this by providing services and events for the community such as: creating welcoming spaces for new and veteran players to learn and play, running monthly ranking tournaments, hosting our national-level tournament Battle Arena Melbourne (BAM), and providing support and resources for companion events in the community.

Nominations: 2023 Officer roles and positions of the President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer will be determined at this event via the nominations of the CouchWarriors Committee. The first round will be received via nomination.
Nominees can make themselves known by emailing us at [email protected]
Only CouchWarriors Committee Members can cast votes, be nominated, and be elected. Not the general public.

At the AGM we will discuss the following agenda items:
– Review of major and ongoing events, this includes Battle Arena Melbourne, The Monthly Ranking Battles, Conventions, and Online tournaments.
– Financial Review,
– Review & clarification of our mission statement,
– Report from each interstate team,
– Our direction and strategy moving forward,
– Review of event and management structure,
– Look ahead to 2023,
– Questions/Roundtable.

If you require further information prior to the event, please reach out to us via our email at [email protected]

Looking forward to seeing you all there! 

CouchWarriors Crossup 2022 – Nov 19-20 – Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour

CouchWarriors Crossup (CWC) returns. The end of year major for the community has all the fantastic FGC and Smash titles. This year we are also hosting Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour with a Power Event, a call back to the first CWC

We’re at a fantastic new venue of St Kilda Town Hall for the CouchWarriors League end of season finals.

Registration: start.gg/cwc2022

Date: November 19-20, 2022

Location: St Kilda Town Hall Auditorium – 99A Carlisle St, St Kilda VIC 3182, Australia

Schedule: Fully listed on the Registration page above

Prizes: Over $15,000 in prize pool thanks to our sponsors ASTRO and MWAVE

  • Major prizes for 1st and 2nd in the top 8 titles
  • Minor prizes across additional games
  • Door Prizes for players and spectators

CouchWarriors League: Our final event of the year will see Bounties on the top players on the ladder by the end of October.

www.couchwarriorsleague.com.au

©BIRD STUDIO/SHUEISHA, TOEI ANIMATION Game © Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

BAM12 Expands With Bigger Tournament Schedule & New BAM Bounties

The hype train for Battle Arena Melbourne next month is picking up a ton of steam with each passing week, and we’ve got a couple more announcements here which are sure to help fuel that engine!

Not only has the list of fighting games represented in the tournament schedule grown significantly since the initial announcement, but CouchWarriors have now confirmed the return of the “BAM Bounties” competition – offering special prizes to anyone who can take down the top-ranked players of CouchWarriors League in their favorite game.

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BAM 2022 is Just One Month Away!

There’s a very special atmosphere around the Australian FGC this month – an excitement nobody has felt for several long, major-less years. The twelfth-ever Battle Arena Melbourne finally has a scheduled date and venue, and the biggest international esports tournament on the national calendar is now open for player registration!

Taking place at Melbourne Exhibition Centre from May 13th to May 15th, BAM is a celebration of everything happening in fighting games, right in the heart of the city’s renowned CBD. It’s also the heart of the CouchWarriors League tournament circuit, offering a huge injection of ranking points alongside other prizes and competitions. Attracting champions both domestic and international across a huge range of games, this is the pinnacle of competition for every player (and spectator!) in OCE.

 

BAM11 crowd popoff

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CouchWarriors League New Points System Aug 2021

If you ask the question, “why are the CouchWarriors events all called Ranbats?”  It’s short for Ranking Battle – a long standing tradition in the community, offering players an incentive to compare their progress and get ever stronger! Today we’re announcing an update to the point system to make it more inclusive of players of all levels.

Of course, all our Ranking Battle live events are not just about tournaments, they’re perhaps moreso about socialising, casual matches and even long sets, with a great opportunity to learn and improve.

By also having tournaments this adds some goals and structure for a day’s play – and the point system is part of that. Tying all our offline and online events together via the points is CouchWarriors League – the league ladder tracks each game and region, which you can filter here on the website. This has been a great way to determine seeding and invitations for events, and prize rewards.

Now as we dive into the 2nd half of this year’s season under CouchWarriors League, we’ve updated the system, in consultation with the tournament teams.Lets take a look:

What’s new and why do we like it?

  • Expands the point system down to all participants, not just top 4-8
  • This means participation is encouraged for those who think they can’t place, they can build up a small base of points just by entering consistently.
  • We have kept the weighting towards offline tournaments vs online, however all points totals are increased, so if you play consistently, even online, you have a chance to post a good score
  • This provides a nice second split/half season boost as we go towards finals. We won’t reset the points completely, but it provides an effective reset for those actively playing thanks to the increase.
  • Still acknowledges season 1 players who get a kick start, recognizing due to COVID, its been an uneven year for live events.
  • The system gives more scope for flexibility in determining prizes and finals seeding.

The point system will be in effect from July events onwards! Yes, that means you can earn more points for playing any of the current tournaments! Register here

Rewards

We recognise this year has been uneven due to Covid, so some regions may have more events than others. This is why we will award end of season prizes to the top players in every game – in each region.

So if you’re the best player in a feature title in your state, or online, which is treated as its own region, you’ll be rewarded!

Current online feature titles are Street Fighter V, Guilty Gear Strive, Tekken 7 and Super Smash Bros Ultimate.  These run monthly, so there’s a tournament each week and a prize will be allocated each month.

An additional two titles, while not guaranteed to run an online tournament each month, are staples of offline and will also have an end of season prize: Dragon Ball FighterZ and Super Smash Bros Melee.

Prizes are to be announced as the season progresses. You can count on support from our excellent sponsors Astro and Mwave for starters.

Regular titles you find at your local ranbat are all tracked in the points system, and at minimum we will add rewards at the finals.

Finals

On finals we will be planning to conclude the CWLeague season at CWC – CouchWarriors Crossup – in December with a boosted prize pool and more, to be announced.

If it is impossible for us to run a live finals event, we will run an online invitational using the league ladder. Last year there were over $5,000 in prizes and we are aiming high for this year.  We will have more to share on this soon, but rest assured those points are worth striving for!

ASTRO STEPS INTO THE RING AS THE PRESENTING PARTNER OF COUCHWARRIORS LEAGUE AND BAM

Australia’s premier fighting game esports league and its major event, are now powered by ASTRO GAMING

MEDIA RELEASE: ASTRO Gaming today announced it will be pulling on the gloves and supporting the Australian Fighting Game Community as it becomes the presenting partner of CouchWarriors League and BAM (Battle Arena Melbourne) for 2021-22. As the exclusive partner for headsets, CouchWarriors League will be equipped with ASTRO headsets for events, player prizes and commentators to call the action in top fighting game titles including Street Fighter V, Tekken 7 and Super Smash Bros Ultimate.

CouchWarriors League is the premier esports league for fighting game fans in Australia, with live events across the country in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide, along with online tournaments broadcast to thousands of monthly viewers. The CouchWarriors series of events has been an anchor for the fighting game community (FGC) for nearly 15 years. It welcomes grassroots play from casual matches to major tournaments.

Australia’s largest major FGC event, BAM, returns in May 2022, presented by ASTRO. BAM has been the home of amazing moments on the FGC world stage, featuring international talent as stops for world tours including Capcom Pro Tour and Tekken World Tour.

Most of all, it is a must attend for fighting game fans nationwide both for connecting with the community, and competing in the national championships. Over 1,000 unique competitors joined the fray in 2019.

“We are incredibly excited at ASTRO Gaming as a major supporter of fighting game esports globally, having sponsored major events including EVO World Championships, CEO and Combo Breaker. BAM is the equivalent major event on the Australian calendar having hosted thousands of competitors and world tours. As part of CouchWarriors League, we look forward to being part of the year-round hype and energy of the fighting game scene” Said Daniel Hall, Senior Category Portfolio Manager, Logitech G and ASTRO Gaming Australia.

“The passion and vibrancy of the fighting game scene calls for an equally passionate partner for the CouchWarriors League and we’re thrilled to have ASTRO on board, supporting the players and tournament organisers in the scene. We’re excited for what the partnership will bring to all our events from local live tournaments nationwide, to our regular online tournaments and major events like BAM. The pedigree and dedication to fighting games by ASTRO worldwide is unmatched” Added Daniel Chlebowczyk, Director of Events Engine, the partnership manager for CouchWarriors League.

The next event will be BANC – Battle Arena NightClub in Melbourne on July 11. https://smash.gg/banc 

Catch the live action across the CouchWarriors Twitch Channel and the CouchWarriors Smash Twitch Channel.

Follow the CouchWarriors League ladder and links to event registration at the official website:

Join the battle at CouchWarriorsLeague.com.au

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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