EVO 2022: Arc System Works Esports on COVID-19 & returning to physical events

The Arc System Works esports team was present at EVO 2022 and they talk about the challenges of returning to offline tournaments.

Ozzie Mejia

August 10, 2022 3:00 PM

Arc System Works made its return to physical esports events in grand fashion last weekend. Guilty Gear Strive closed EVO 2022 on Sunday, one day after Dragon Ball FighterZ nearly went to the crack of dawn the night prior. In-person fighting game tournaments look to be back full-time after COVID-19 forced everyone into virtual competition for years. To learn more about the transition back to live events, our own TJ Denzer caught up with Arc System Works Esports' Ryo Ishida and Junior Ferreira.

Ishida and Ferreira discuss the esports atmosphere during the pandemic, noting that many of the champions from 2020's online events had never been to an offline event before and were meeting other players and members of the community for the first time. They also discussed the difficulty that came with transitioning to an online ecosystem and then having to transition back to an offline setting, as well as what they've learned from doing so in order to create a better tournament experience. They also talk about their approach to balance adjustments based on what they see from events like EVO, as well as what they see from average online users.

After spending years holding online tournaments, Arc System Works is officially returning to full-time offline events. The ARCREVO World Tour is underway for 2022 and features a $200,000 USD prize pool. Ishida and Ferreira acknowledged that the pandemic has led to greater demand for offline play, which has helped lead to Arc System Works announcing a Guilty Gear Strive crossplay beta for later this year.

We covered a lot of news from this past weekend, including some announcements for Guilty Gear Strive, so be sure to catch up with anything you missed by checking on the EVO 2022 page. For more interviews like this, make sure to subscribe to Shacknews and GamerHubTV on YouTube.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

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