ARC World Tour – Guilty Gear Strive’s Biggest Circuit

Fighting games work a bit differently from a lot of other esports. Rather than huge ongoing Leagues, most of the action in fighting games are disconnected Majors. Here, the top players compete in multiple games, each time in a brand-new event. The exceptions to this though are the giant circuits which are behind some of the biggest fighting games. One of the most important FGC circuits is the Arc World Tour.

It’s the premier event for one of the most popular fighters out there. A grand finale for Guilty Gear.

Arc System Works are the developer behind some of the all-time greatest fighting games. Their anime fighting games have come to dominate esports, with half of EVO regularly being games they produced. The Arc World Tour is the premier circuit for these titles, in 2023 that circuit has a particular focus on Guilty Gear Strive.

As a developer-run circuit, the Arc World Tour is the ultimate test of skill for Guilty Gear. It runs all year long, and at the end we get a huge LAN with an impressive prize pool. It’s here that we crown the winner for the Arc World Tour 2023, but also which player can claim to be the best in the world right now. It’s getting even bigger in 2023.

Arc World Tour

Source: Arc System Works

Arc World Tour Format

This year the Arc World Tour is having a few changes in its format and set-up. As usual, this is a wider circuit style of tournament. This means there’ll be tournaments all through the year which contribute to the wider event. Players who perform well at affiliated tournaments will secure their place at the Finals. There will be a bracket Grand Final event held at the end of the circuit, where players from all over the world are competing.

This year, the tournament is only running for Guilty Gear Strive. Other Arc Games have their own circuits like FighterZ. For the World Tour though, it seems Guilty Gear is the focus for fighting game esports.

The tournament as a whole is organized into 12 different qualifier tournaments. The winners of these Majors will directly receive an invite to the finals. However with them, the top 3 players on the leaderboard for all of these events will secure a spot too. That’s along with the final spots going to the winner of the Last Chance Qualifier. That’s a dedicated event where those who just lost out on their position fight to make it to the Arc World Tour Finals.

Qualifying Tournaments

The main way of getting into the finals is going to be winning one of the qualifiers. These are Majors spread around the world, to ensure a wide spread of talent at the finals. Some of these tournaments are big as stand-alone events too, like Guilty Gear Strive at EVO 2023. These are all of the qualifying events for this year.

  • Headstomper 2023
  • Battle Arena Melbourne 13
  • Brussels Challenge Major
  • EVO 2023
  • VSFighting XI
  • CEOtaku 2023
  • ARCREVO 2023 Japan
  • REV Major 2023
  • Battle Coliseum 2023
  • Frosty Faultings XVI

These tournaments will take us up to January 2024, setting the stage for the Grand Finals. We’ve got showdowns at each of these tournaments alone. Plus, there’s the LCQ as a last chance to make it to the finals of the Arc World Tour 2023. 16 players in total are going to qualify.

Guilty Gear Strive EVO 2023

Source: EVO

Players at Arc World Tour

As the Arc World Tour is a wider circuit, there are thousands of total players trying their hands at the major tournament. However, only the very best will make it through to the finals. These are the players who have qualified so far.

  • Zando (Qualified through Headstomper)
  • Leo (Battle Arena Melbourne)
  • Slash (Brussels Challenge Major Edition)
  • Leffen (EVO)
  • Jonathan Tene (VSFighting XI)
  • TempestNYC (CEOtaku)
  • GOBOU (ARCREVO Japan)

In Japan, GOBOU took the win off UMISHO at ArcRevo. This is one of a few Asian qualifiers, but after beating more 250 other players he’s definitely earned his spot in the final. Another notable standout so far has been Leffen. The one-time Smash Bros god has turned his eyes to Guilty Gear lately and won the GGS EVO 2023 event. He’ll definitely be a player worth keeping an eye on at the tournament. EVO wasn’t his only big result out of these qualifiers, he only barely missed out at the Brussels Challenge Major Edition too.

Leffen Wins Guilty Gear Strive EVO 2023

Source: EVO

ARC World Tour Grand Final

The Arc World Tour is set to be an exciting event, with players qualifying all throughout the year. What’s it all building towards though? This year the Arc World Tour Grand Finals are seeing a few changes. The first is that the tournament is only covering Guilty Gear Strive. There’s no DNF Duel or other games this time around, even if DNF is still getting new characters.

The second major change is a big expansion for the Arc World Tour. We’re getting 16 different players attending the final, up from 8 who took part in the last season. This is an impressive expansion and it should make for an even more competitive final bracket. Out of these, most are coming directly from qualifiers. 3 are coming from the overall leaderboard and one from the last chance qualifier too.

The Guilty Gear Strive tournament at the Arc World Tour Finals is getting even bigger this year. We don’t yet have the full date confirmed, but we can expect to start to hear next year. The qualifying events are wrapping up by January 2024, so it likely won’t be too far into the new year when we get confirmation of the prize pool, and the exact schedule of the event.