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INTEREST: Japan's Biggest Fighting Game Tournament Goes on Hiatus

Tougeki, or Super Battle Opera as it's better known in the U.S., needs to take this time to take a breather, step back and re-evaluate itself.

At its peak, the tournament was a spectacle of top players coming out to smoke machines and walking down ramps (kinda like a watered-down WWE intro) to sit down at an arcade machine and playing their best. Watching videos of this back before SF4's release made me feel like SBO was the event where fighting game players can feel like rockstars.

For that past two years, the event has scaled back to a side-event at the Tokyo Game Show convention and that hasn't helped with grabbing additional attention for the tournament series. Grand finals for Persona 4 Arena in Japan's most elusive tournament can't compete with the Internet's attention when new footage of Monster Hunter or other hot Japanese game reveal.