Cue sad trombone (or should that be Tron Bonne?)
On Tuesday, a slip-up caused a video, detailing Capcom’s entire esports plan regarding Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, to be uploaded to the YouTube account of its esports director, John Diamonon.
The five-minute video, featuring proposals, figures, sponsorship ideas, and profit distribution, was quickly removed, but not before savvy-japesters had already bagged themselves a copy to be reuploaded on NeoGAF and elsewhere (most of these re-uploads and screengrabs have since been removed.)
The video showcased plans for a 16-man tournament to be held at the Capcom Cup this year, with fourteen of the entrants winning a spot via online qualifying sessions. 2018 would see a full year Pro-tour, in the exact same vein as Street Fighter V, with a distributed prize pool of $600,000.
The video goes on to talk marketing and profit budgets, as well as detailing how much profit will be expected and shared between Capcom USA, Capcom Japan and, of course, Marvel themselves. There were suggestions that both YouTube and Twitch would put money into the cause as part of a recoupable licensing fee.
Aspirations of how to incorporate the annual EVO tournament into sponsorship deals has caused EVO boss Joey Cuellar to leap onto his Twitter, denying that he has even been consulted about such matters and also saying that EVO footage was used without permission.
John Diamonon also took to Twitter to provide some context. “The Capcom esports video that was mistakenly uploaded to my YouTube channel was a proposal and the information included was not final,” tweeted Diamonon. “Capcom has lots of exciting esports plans for our fighting games and we look forward to sharing those final details in the future.”
I personally think the most surprising aspect of these plans is the thought of holding a Top 16 at the prestigious Capcom Cup made up of competitors who won in an online capacity. Hopefully MvCI will have exceptional netcode at launch, if that is the case.
