One of the best aspects to following fighting game esports is how many tournaments offer a variety of games. You’ll typically see half of the best fighting games popping up at any one of the major tournaments, but the really special FG esports all tend to have something more. Wider circuits are common for the games that have huge followings, and King of Fighters has one of its own in the SNK World Championship.
Along with Street Fighter, King of Fighters is one of the franchises that made the genre what it is today. Competitively, it has a huge following with competitors all over the world trying to master characters in the game. The SNK World Championship is the premier tournament for these players to test out their skills. It’s here where all the best international players gather to decide who is number 1.
This year, the SNK World Championship is finally returning.
The SNK World Championship is similar to the Capcom Pro Tour or other major circuits. Rather than being one event, it’s an ongoing banner under which loads of majors each year take place. While these are independently organized, results at these events carry over into a larger leaderboard. It all culminates in a giant finale where we see the very best players competing in a single bracket to decide who is the best.
Source: SNK
Circuits like these are a great way to add more progression and tension to each of the individual majors throughout the year. Compared to the Arc World Tour, the SNK World Championship is on a similar level. It is a little bit newer than a lot of the competition though, only showing up in this form in 2019/20 and now this year.
The tournament has become more focused this year though. It’s now focusing exclusively on King of Fighters XV, a move which has helped elevate the event to a major esports competition, not just a showcase for SNK’s titles.
The tournament will be running across a few different majors. These will contribute points to an ongoing leaderboard at the end of the run, we’ll see a grand final take place. Here the best players will compete in a bracket for a bigger prize pool.
The SNK World Championship so far is linked up with two events. The winner of KoF 203 at EVO will get their slot at the World Finals. As the biggest western fighting game competition, this makes perfect sense and it’s a fitting prize for the winner there.
Another player has already earned their spot. The winner of KoF at EVO Japan also received an invite to the World Tour. This was Xiaohai.
Two players don’t make for much of a grand final though. So, what about the others? So far, SNK have been pretty quiet about what else will be a part of the event. We’ll likely hear about the other events closer to their time. Once EVO is out of the way, we can expect to start learning more about what else is to come at the SNK World Championship 2023.
Unlike some other wider circuits, SNK isn’t running the circuit under a single year with a final early next. Instead, this series will incorporate events from the second half of 23 and the early half of 24. This helps bridge the gap for fighting game fans once the other circuits wrap up in winter.
Source: @Xiaohai_
SNK might be one of the older names in fighting games, but they’ve actually been a bit slower to set up a wider circuit unlike series’ like the Tekken World Tour. Their first attempt at the World Championship came in 2019/2020. This featured both King of Fighters and Samurai Shodown.
Following this, the 2020 World Championship finale was postponed over coronavirus. With problems for live events dragging on, the tournaSment was cancelled eventually. It’s taken until 2023 for them to jump back into the game, but it looks like a great year to have another crack at a wider circuit.
With new releases making big waves and more people interested in fighting games than ever before, it’s a perfect time to restart the SNK World Championship. Since new KoF games are some of the most anticipated upcoming fighting games, we could even see this circuit expanded next year.
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